Marco's Bizarre Adventure
by roddypiperfan84
Summary: After Echo Creek and Mewni merged, Marco left his hometown in frustration and returned 3 years later arrested. His grandfather takes him to an adventure with his friends as they battle their vampire nemesis to save Angie and Mariposa. Cover by MALANDRA-PARODIAS in deviantart.
1. Prologue

**Hey, I decided to do a crossover fanfiction on Star vs The Forces of Evil, with the plot being all Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. This story takes place after the series, I decided that Marco should be the protagonist that would go all Jotaro Kujo on here, I also decided to add a bunch of OCs with Stands in this, similar to the canon ones of Jojo Part 3, and being a fan of Capcom and wrestling here, I also decided to add a bit of Street Fighter, Final Fight and old wrestling games like Saturday Night Slam Masters/Muscle Bomber, 3 Count Bout/Fire Suplex, Tecmo World Wrestling and NES Pro Wrestling, largely because of the characters that are based on real life wrestlers and the gaming nostalgia. Without further ado, here we go:**

**2015: Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea**

Three fishermen in a boat in the middle of the sea were picking something up, and they found it. It looked like a wealthy and detailed looking casket they thought was a treasure chest.

"We got something!" One of the fishermen yelled as the others ran to pick what they found.

"Holy shit, whatever is in it, we're gonna be rich!" Fisherman #2 said.

They set down the casket and the third fisherman said, "Let's open it see what's in it."

The first one looked at it curiously as the second man went off to get a crowbar, "Hang on, there's something bizarre about this chest." The first fisherman picked up a nail and hammer and brushed off some of the barnacles on what looked like a name with the letters H-U-G-O, "Hugo, what does that even mean?"

"Who cares, let's open this baby. It's getting dark, don't you wanna see what's in it?" The second man asked impatiently as the sun started to set.

"Right, who am I kidding, let's see it." The first man said as their third companion returned with a crowbar as they began to open it.

A day later, some officials found the boat as they discovered that the fishermen were dead last night, with nothing but three cups of coffee, still warm, a plate with half eaten vanilla cake, and an empty casket which claimed to be someone occupying it and killed the fishermen on board before escaping without a trace.

**2016: Echo Creek, California, USA, one year after the incident.**

It's been four months since Mewni collided with Echo Creek, humans and monsters socialized and got along, Eclipsa remains Queen of Mewni and everyone lived happily ever after, but it's just the beginning, Mewni's new fully trained knight, Marco Diaz, felt that this is just some kind of prophecy that could bring the destruction of the universe. He suddenly felt like he was just a pawn, people were always told that he should train some more, he teamed with his friends to stop the bad guys, Star, Tom, Kelly and a few others had magic and experience, Marco felt like they were holding him back.

One day after they defeated a "Rebel General", Star decided to put him on trial to decide his fate in court for justice, but Marco felt that it's impossible, he saw the general smirk, as if he was about to do something far worse than facing justice for this man's crimes, one night he escaped, and Marco savagely killed him in cold blood, he was right. Fighting for justice to give the enemy a punishment through court can only lead to a certain disaster, even a peace treaty would lure someone to their death, just like when Moon told him about what happened with her mother. Marco silently resigned, and after remembering what Jackie Lynn Thomas said when they reunited at Britta's Tacos between following one's own path, Marco decided that it was time to do the same, despite remaining on good terms and with Marco dating Star, he felt that he had lost his trust in his friends and allies, and he had enough.

Marco packed some of his stuff to leave, he didn't tell his parents when will he come back, because he refused to trust them. Star ultimately found out about this and confronted Marco, which led to this:

Marco rolled around as he dodged all of Star's attacks and took so many devastating hits, which fueled up his aggression. He delivers a barrage of fists to Star as she tried to dodge, but failed as Marco began to take the advantage.

"Face it, Star, this can't end a battle without peace, 'cause it will bring a declaration of war, not even you can stop it." Marco taunted as he kept his fists up.

"I'm not letting you go. The only thing that matters, is that we fight for justice without every consequence to keep us down. Let me help you." Star said as she tried to help her boyfriend, but was met with a punch in the jaw as Marco replied, "No, you're not, it'll lead you to your own fate." He continued the onslaught.

The fight went on as everyone in Echo Creek and Mewni appeared and looked at the battle happening, everybody decided to watch the massacre as they stood back without being caught in the crossfire. This went on for over 40 minutes as Star used her spells on Marco with little to no effect.

"Is that really the best you can do? Show me what you got!" Marco taunted as Star continued to throw everything at him.

"Don't make me do this, Marco! Just give up and stand down, please!" Star tried to reason with him, but it was no use.

Marco did a flying Eclipse Kick, Star was caught off guard by it. As a result, Star had no other choice, she turned into her butterfly form and began to overpower her boyfriend on and on, Marco went down, after taking so many blows from her full powered fists.

"There's no way to stop me, now stand down." Star called out again, but unfortunately for her, Marco stood up. Despite being outnumbered by his best friend with six fists in her butterfly form than two, Marco felt like he was about to accept defeat, but his heart told him that this defeat would only make Star vulnerable, filled with regret and disappointment, he knew that she'd be in that state, she'll lose an important battle because of this.

And he knew it. As a result, Marco and Star traded blow after blow, Star holds the advantage before she can use her magic to finish it, but with every punch she landed, Marco stood his ground and kept on punching. Suddenly a surge of power and adrenaline gave Marco enough time to keep the onslaught going, and brought a battle cry.

"Ora ora ora ora ora oraoraoraoraORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!" This cry motivated Marco as he began to power his way through, Star had the advantage, but this newfound power in Marco was outnumbering her. Both had become equally matched, but Marco managed to gain the upper hand and punched Star in her stomach, catching her off guard.

"You wanna know something about this Star? You're pissing me OFF!" Marco yelled as he kept on punching his now former best friend with full power and speed, making sure she stays down for good. "ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA! ORA!" With one final punch in her heart, it was over.

Star went flying as blood splattered everywhere, she fell into the hard ground, bleeding, broken, and exhausted, she had failed to stop him. The punches were too fast, she didn't even see them coming, nor did she enough time to counter, they were lightning fast. This heartbreaking defeat only showed her that, even at her full power, aggression was what Marco had to find a way out. And for the first time, Star's defeat laid down in the hands of her now former best friend. He didn't show any emotion, he was just stoic and angry. Tom, Janna, Jackie, Chloe, Eclipsa, River and Moon ran towards Star as Marco stood there, emotionless.

"You see that, Star? This is how weak you are, when it comes to fighting for justice. Letting a criminal live and imprisoned, just so he can escape and plot another scheme, that can lead to your own fate." Marco stated as Star tried to get up, but the pain became too much and laid down before saying, "Why? Why are you doing this? I could've helped you, you can't stop this all alone!"

"THINGS CHANGE, STAR! I CHANGE! It's over!" Marco exclaimed, declaring the end of their friendship. Janna stood up and grabbed Marco by the shoulder, stopping him.

"Hey, you can't say something like that!" Janna said as she tried to reassure him, but she got punched in the face as a response, Marco took off his iconic red hoodie and tossed it in the ground. He stomped on it before walking away. Everyone were in shock at what they witnessed, Star cried in agony as Moon held her close, Tom and Janna stayed by her side for comfort, Jackie only stood there, looking at the path Marco went, she became... worried. After witnessing the fight, she felt worried about Marco, she had no idea what to do now.

Marco kept on walking in the dead of night, before disappearing from his hometown. Until three years later.

**Character info:**

Marco Diaz:

Hometown: Echo Creek, California

Height: 6'4" (5'11", prologue)

Stand: Crimson Tiger

Power: Superhuman strength, speed, durability, resilience and precision

Zoltán Farkas:

Hometown: Budapest, Hungary

Height: 6'4"

Stand: Wolf Sultan

Power: Superhuman strength, speed, durability, resilience and precision

Jackie Lynn Thomas:

Hometown: Echo Creek, California

Height: 5'9"

Stand: Azure Mermaid

Power: Superhuman speed, water manipulation and adaptation, hydrokinesis and reflexes

Antonio Malenko:

Hometown: Venice, Italy

Height: 6'8"

Stand: Emerald Mage

Power: Spiritual photography and vine manipulation

Loki Ordonia:

Hometown: Manila, Philippines

Height: 6'1"

Stand: Silver Terminator

Power: Laser shooting, long distance possession and endurance

Elior Neumann:

Hometown: Jerusalem, Israel

Height: 6'6"

Stand: Golden Dragon

Power: Fire manipulation and heat

Filip Bosko:

Hometown: Bratislava, Slovakia

Height: 6'1"

Stand: Royal Guardian

Power: Superhuman speed, precise swordsmanship and reflexes

Cujo:

Hometown: Seattle, Washington

Species: Yorkshire Terrier

Stand: Sematary

Power: Unpredictability and sand manipulation

Hugo von Kaiser:

Hometown: The German Empire

Height: 6'5"

Stand: The King

Power: Superhuman strength, speed, precision, durability and time stopping

**Well, that's the prologue, today is my birthday and I figured "Screw it, I'm posting it," this is my first time doing a crossover, let's hope that I try my best. The Stand Users that the heroes might face are the very same characters from Stardust Crusaders throughout their journey before they meet Filip and Cujo while they're at it. Hugo von Kaiser is the Dio Brando of this story, so stay tuned.**


	2. Marco's return

**Here's the next chapter. Read the A/N at the bottom after this.**

3 years after the magic collapsed and the world of Mewni collided with Echo Creek, things went from good to bad for Marco and Star. Marco couldn't take it anymore as he was being held back by Star and their friends in every battle because they have powers. As a result, Marco and Star fought each other, Star had the upper hand at first, but Marco managed to defeat her.

Star had the fight won, even in her butterfly form, but Marco was resilient and aggressive, he showed no mercy, Marco broke up with Star in frustration after that, saying that things change and so did he. Star was devastated and Marco disappeared from the face of the earth, nobody found him and no one bothered to look for him.

3 years today, Star and friends got word that Marco was found arrested for unknown reasons, desperate to have Marco back in their lives, Star, Jackie, Janna, Eclipsa, Moon, the Diaz family and everyone else headed to the police station to get him back.

"It's okay, we'll get him back, lets hope he finally behaves himself." Moon said as she comforts Star as a police chief approached them when the Diaz get in front of him desperately.

"Anything?" Angie asked in worry as Rafael has 4 year old Mariposa in his arms.

"Yes, let's see if this is the right profile." The chief said, the next thing everyone knew, the chief said something that threw everybody out of the loop, except for Angie and Rafael, because they knew their secrets of who they were and Marco's full name.

"Mauricio Ubaldo Diaz Malenko, 19 years old, 6'4" tall, 242lbs, currently single, his father is a Mexican pro wrestler currently retired, his mother is an Italian-American, and daughter of Mayor Malenko." The chief stated as Rafael, Angie and Mariposa stood at the desk, while Star, Janna and some of their friends looked at the Diaz in surprise.

"Yes, all of that is correct and Mauricio is definitely our son." Angie replied before a cop says, "Guess all of his friends call him Marco, figure he'd take five letters of his first name and combine them, wow, that's pretty lame."

Angie then started asking, "I-I need to know, exactly how many people did Marco killed? No I take it back, I don't wanna know!"

"Settle down, nobody said anything about him killing people." The chief said as the cop beside him said, "He got into a fight, that's all." That made Angie stop panicking.

"The truth is, the thugs he tangled with were all armed with nunchucks and knives. He fought four punks, one being an ex-boxer and he broke 15 of their bones, and he busted their balls. Sorry if that was crude, he put all of 'em in the hospital." The chief walked to the next desk as the officer explains.

"Things could've got a lot worse, he's gotta show the severity of his actions."

"Okay." Angie said cheerfully.

"The real issue is what happened afterward." The chief said as he approached another desk, "Copy this and pass it around." "Yes sir." Replied a worker. "I gotta tell ya ma'am, that son of yours is a strange one." Said the chief as Angie becomes worried and confused at the same time.

The door to the cells open as everyone (Angie, Rafael, Mariposa, Star, Janna, Jackie, Tom and others) followed the two cops, "Okay, follow me, I'll show you the way."

"Thank you for everything." Rafael said as he walks beside his wife and their young daughter.

"Look you can thank me by taking your kid home." The chief said.

"So then... does that mean you're releasing him?" Rafael asked.

"Well, we can't keep him here forever." The chief answered.

"By the way ma'am, despite your Italian heritage, your English is quite accurate, how long have you been here in America?" The officer asked.

"27 years since my father became mayor of Echo Creek." Angie gives her answer.

"Well that explains it then." The officer replied.

"This place has been overrun lately, we got an entire back bar of criminals so we won't be able to find any more cells for them." The chief explained.

"We're almost there, Marco's just up ahead." The officer said before Angie sprinted.

"Marco!" Angie shouted as she ran for Marco's cell with Star. Flashbacks are then shown as the girls are running to Marco's cell.

_"Marco, throw the ball to mom." Angie said as little 6 year old Marco catches the ball and giggles happily, "Good boy."_

_"Good luck on the track, I know you can win this." Angie said as 10 year old Marco runs on the track._

_"Okay." Marco replied._

_"Marco, you did it, you won the tournament. Let's go out to eat and celebrate." Angie said as 14 year old Marco stands at the podium with his first place trophy and karate gi on with the green belt and a hachimaki._

_"Nothing's as good as your cooking mom." Marco commented before he puts on his signature red hoodie. The flashbacks end._

"Marco. Marco. Marco! Marco! MARCO!" Angie shouted for him, until...

"SHUT UP! GET OUT OF MY FACE YOU BITCH!" Marco yelled angrily as he lays on his prison bed, wearing a crimson red baseball cap and vest (think Johnny Gargano), navy blue jeans, black and scarlet red sneakers, a black belt and black hand wraps.

"Okay." Angie replied cheerfully.

**MARCO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE**

"I promise you, he's a very sweet boy. He's just not capable of doing something so appalling." Angie explained as Marco rolls over, not wanting to look at everyone.

The officer noticed, "Hey, get on your feet Diaz, you're being released! What part of 'Go home' don't you understand!"

Marco looks at them with one eye in a stoic fashion, he then sits up and tips his hat, "Listen mom, you can leave, I'll be staying here for a while." That statement surprised everyone, "Seems I've been possessed by an evil spirit, and have no idea what it'll do to me next. During that fight, it took all I had just to stop it. So do everyone a favor and leave me in this cage."

"Hmm, good enough for me." Higgs said only to get smacked by Star on the ribs.

"Higgs, knock it off." Star said harshly.

"Geez, for crying out loud, you see what I'm talking about? We're trying to release him, but he refuses to go. I'm sorry that I have to ask, but are you sure everything is alright with your boy upstairs?" The chief asked.

"This isn't a hotel, you know." The cop added.

"Don't worry, let me handle this." Janna said as she approached the cell door, only to step back as three of the crooks took over, they look horrified of what might happen to them.

"LET US CHANGE CELLS, PLEASE!" Thug 1 yelled in panic.

"He's not lying about the whole evil spirit thing!" Thug 2 replied as they continue to beg for vacant cells in panic.

"Alright, alright, that's enough, all of you shut up!" The cop said as he bangs his baton on the bars, soon they hear something like someone is stabbing a piece of paper, everyone turns to see Marco stabbing a hole at the bottom of a cold soda can with a pen, he opens the can and drinks from the hole he made.

"Is he... seriously?" Thug 3 asked.

"What are you doing with a soda in a jail cell? How did you even get that in there?" The chief surprisingly asked. Marco finished drinking and burps while crushing the empty can, which caused the thugs to cower on the opposite wall of the cell away from him.

"I told you, I got an evil spirit. Sometimes it likes to bring me things." Marco said as a notebook floats towards him with the same pen Marco used. He opens it and starts sketching as a radio (which appears out of nowhere) turns itself on and Never Again by Breaking Benjamin starts playing.

"What the hell, he's drawing on a notebook while listening to the radio!" The chief exclaimed as he saw the respective items as the cop saw it as well before saying, "Sir, how is that even possible, we have a major problem here!"

"Hold it." Marco said before standing up, taking off his hat, "This might not be enough for you guys to keep me locked up in here," He walks to the bars, "but I'll show you how evil the spirit is anyway. Maybe then you'll see why letting me out of here is a bad idea."

Marco extended his right arm as he stands still, then a transparent ruby red arm, with a brown fingerless glove with gold accents, grabbed a gun and floats toward Marco, to Angie and Jackie's surprise, they were the ones who saw it.

The cop and the chief began to panic, "That's my gun he has in his hand, but how did he..." "That's really bad!" The chief exclaimed.

Marco gets annoyed, "You didn't see it just now? Well if you guys didn't see my evil spirit, then watch this." Marco said as he points the gun straight to his head.

"No! MARCO!" Angie yelled, but it's too late, Marco fired the gun, everyone stood there in fear of what just happened, the bullet is seen in midair, smoking as the transparent arm reappeared and caught the bullet.

"It's like there's someone behind me, it bound itself to me not long ago." Marco said as he extended the gun and the transparent arm drops the bullet to the floor, everyone stood there as they try to question this in their thoughts, but Angie's thought has the better solution, 'My father, Antonio, has strange powers. But what's happening to my son?'

Two days later, while trying to process everything, everyone came up with ideas that would bring Marco out of his cell, but after knowing what answer he was going to say, neither of them are capable to do so.

"It's impossible Janna, that's not gonna work." Kelly said as everyone were outside of the police station.

"Look, after we saw that bullet, it was like he didn't use any magic, and out of instinct, it doesn't make any sense at all." Tom exclaimed.

"Listen people, I'd say we retaliate for trying to scare us like that, whatever that Earth Turd just did, he's going down." Pony Head said as if her idea is cool.

"Sorry to break it to you, but I don't think that's gonna work." Jackie said as everyone looked at her.

"What makes you say that?" Star asked.

"Because he meant what he said when he refused to leave." Jackie replied defensively as everyone began to argue until Angie reappeared.

"Alright everyone, I just got off the phone and I figured we'd let someone else to do it." Angie announced as everyone looked at her confused.

"Who is it?" Eclipsa asked.

"I'm leaving as a surprise." Angie replied, which only made Rafael sweat, knowing exactly who she was referring to.

"Are you sure about it? (begins twitching), Because the last time we saw him..." Rafael tries to respond, but he began to be on a weird level, because he was terrified of saying one thing in his mind as everyone looked at him.

"Not only I helped him rescue you from the Purple Dragon Gang, he slammed a nearly eight foot tall giant (slaps himself), which almost destroyed a building to the ground." Rafael's too scared as he remembered how he teamed up with his father-in-law.

"He gave you his blessing didn't he?" Angie answered as Rafael yelps in fear.

"Who were you referring to?" Star asked as everyone else asked Angie about her father, but Rafael went ahead.

"Let's just say her father's the most scariest man I've ever met, and I did recall that he can slam giants like they were made of sand, he can do that literally." Rafael said in a terrified tone.

"He's also a very nice man who likes to respect the people that follow every law, but when it comes to fighting someone seriously, he takes matters in to his own hands." Angie explained as she tries to reassure Rafael, "Now if you excuse me, I need to be airport, he's about to land soon."

"I'll go with you." Jackie exclaimed.

"Okay." Angie said as she and Jackie went off.

"Marco's not the only one with something like that." Jackie said as they were out of earshot, heading for the airport.

"You mean you have one too?" Angie asked.

"Yeah, but I don't know what they are." Jackie answered.

"Well then, my father might have some answers once we pick him up." Angie said as they arrived. They see a tall man, around 6'8" tall, bulky and muscular, wearing a brown leather duster, tan pants, brown boots, black gloves, a white button up shirt and a brown fedora. He also happened to be in his late sixties, but he looked like he was in his mid-50s, which described his dark brown mustache and short hair with gray streaks. After seeing him, Angie ran over to call him.

"PAPA! Over here papa, over here!" Angie shouted as the old man noticed.

"Angela! Out of my way." The old man said as he shoved a passenger out of his way, Angie ran towards him and they hug, Jackie stood there, admiring the scene, but also surprised about the man's height.

"I can't believe you're here!" Angie said in excitement, as the father and daughter laugh, "Thank you for coming."

"Hey, you're my one and only daughter, and if you tell me you need me to be somewhere, then just give me a day and I'll cross the globe." The old man said as Angie rests her head on the big man's chest while wrapping her arms around him.

"Did mama come?" Angie asked, feeling the absence of her mother.

"She didn't like me leaving, but I just told Flora that it was official Malenko corporation business and I had to go." The man said as he chuckled at his remark.

"Thanks papa." Angie said as she hugs him tighter, refusing to let go, Jackie starts snickering, knowing what might happen next.

"Angela, hey, the greeting's over, let go of me already." The man said getting a bit embarrassed by his own daughter.

"No, I don't wanna, it's been forever since you held me." Angie replied, hugging him tighter.

"Look at yourself, come on, you're a 42 year old woman, let go." The man said as he tries to step back.

"Oh, now you've done it, I'm gonna tickle you." Angie said as she tickles the old man in the ribs before the elder screamed for a while, then he stopped as he looked at the people around them, watching the scene.

"Hey, what are you clowns staring at?" The man asked aggressively as everyone returned to their business.

"Anyway, papa, this is Jackie Lynn Thomas, one of Marco's friend." Angie introduced as Jackie walked towards them and she extended her hand to the tall elder.

"Hi mister Mayor, I'm Jackie, it's a pleasure to meet you." Jackie said before Angie bent down to grab her father's travel bag.

"Likewise, Antonio Malenko is my name." Antonio said as he shook Jackie's hand, "And speaking of Marco, Angela. You sure he used the word evil spirit?"

The question made Angie frown, drop the bag and get down on her knees, crying because of what happened to Marco. "Oh my poor little boy. Yes, the police and the others said they couldn't see it, but Jackie and I saw it. It's like he had a third arm, and then it reached out and grabbed the gun."

"And when this arm come out, no one else could see it, but the two of you?" Antonio asked.

"That's right." Angie answered before standing up, Jackie picks up the bag before putting her hand on Angie's back for comfort.

"And aside from Marco saying that he's been possessed, you're okay? Did anything happened to you?" Antonio asked.

"I feel totally fine, but what do I do about Marco? He says he won't leave that cell until he finds the cause of all this." Angie dramatically replied in worry about Marco. "What am I gonna do, papa?"

"There, there my darling daughter. You got the former mayor, Antonio Malenko with you now, no need to worry." Antonio said.

"Thank you." Angie replied as Antonio snapped his fingers, a mysterious man stood up from a nearby bench as he followed Antonio, Angie and Jackie.

"Now let's go see my grandson. Marco can explain this himself." Antonio said as they head to the police station.

The next scene now shows a toy car, piloted via remote control, suddenly crashes itself through the cell bars and it's been flipped over in a stop. The cell, now being occupied by Marco himself, has a small table, a laptop, a teacup filled with tea, a lighter, a few books, an MP3 player with headphones and his stolen house keys. Everyone looked at Marco in fear, but they have no idea how he got so much stuff in there, even Janna has become afraid when she realized that Marco finally got his house keys back from her in a blink of an eye.

"H-How terrifying! He's got more stuff again, and it's violent, there's something terrifying possessing him... if anyone outside found out about this, I'd lose my job in a heartbeat!" The chief exclaimed as he identified everything inside the cell.

"We can't quit now, we have to bring him out." Star said refusing to stop trying as the others were tired and helpless.

"Let me at him, I'll show him who's scary!" Higgs exclaimed, refusing to listen. Nobody realized some heavy footsteps approaching due to them complaining about their ideas.

"Girls stop, it's impossible, we have to stop and think of a better plan." Tom said as River finally came up with an idea. Rafael recognized the approaching footsteps as he uses little Mariposa to hide his face in fear.

"I'd say we put him in a gladiatorial battle or put him on judgement!" River announced, but it was too late as everyone soon heard a voice.

"He's no longer your problem, I'll be taking my nipote home now." The voice belonged to Antonio Malenko, the former mayor of Echo Creek, as everyone looked at him in shock, plus everyone was even surprised by his height.

"Your nipote?" Marco questioned as he saw his maternal grandfather in the flesh and still alive, he then stood up.

"Hold it, that's far enough." The cop said as he placed a hand on the former mayor, then the chief decided to help out, "You're better off just staying where you are, it's dangerous. Convince him to leave while you're standing here..."

"I'll take my chances, now step aside and leave him to me. Move it!" Antonio said as he picked up the cops through their collars and threw them into a wall like rag dolls.

"Marco, this is your nonno. Whatever's happening he'll be able to help you, please come out and talk to him." Angie said as both grandfather and grandson walked around the cell bars before they stop and stood there by the cell door on opposite sides, face to face, but Marco wasn't intimidated by Antonio's height. The door suddenly opened.

"Come out, its time to go home." Antonio said, knowing that it was only a matter of time to explain everything.

"Get lost, I didn't ask for you to come here, you really think you can help me, an old man like yourself? Sorry you came all the way from Italy, but nobody can help me gramps." Marco denied as he reveals a metal finger on his hand, Antonio turned pale and looked at his left hand, revealing that Marco took the pinky, he was surprised by the ability.

'Wait, that's the pinky from my prosthetic left hand, when was he able to take it?' Antonio thought of it as Marco looked at the prosthetic pinky.

"So did you see it? Or even feel it? That's the evil spirit." Marco said as he turned away and flicked the pinky back to his grandfather as Antonio caught with ease, "Stay away from me, or you'll lose what's left of your life." The door closed itself as Marco walked back to his cell bed.

'How can this be? I don't believe it... It was able to deceive me right off the bat... Yes... I know exactly what Marco's evil spirit is. But rather than explaining it with words, if he experiences the truth himself, he'll understand it much better. No, he needs to physically understand, because of the dangers he'll face in the future.' Antonio mentally stated as he physically put the severed pinky in his coat pocket before snapping his fingers.

"Elior, you're up." Antonio called in as a bulky man at a height of 6'6", wearing tan and black clothing, a brown belt, black boots, a brown cape and has a couple of gold bands in his arms, boots and forehead with the Star of David engraved in them, he also has blonde hair reaching his upper neck and chin and a subtle. "This is my Israeli friend I met three years ago, Elior. Do me a favor and bring my grandson out of his cell."

"Enough, this guy may look strong, but do you really think I'd let someone chase me out of here just 'cause you told them to do it? I don't work like that, in fact, all you've done now is make me wanna stay here even more." Marco stated as he sat there unimpressed.

"I'm afraid this may get a little bit rough, but in a few minutes he'll be riddled with so much pain, that he'll be begging you to let him out of here." Elior said as he stood in front of the cell door.

"Just do what you gotta do." Antonio ordered.

"Papa, you can't be serious." Angie said in shock as the others looked at the old man in shock.

"Wait a sec, we can't let you do this." The chief said, but then...

"Zip it, punk!" Antonio shouted.

"Yes sir!" The cops exclaimed in fear as Elior stood in a sorcerer like pose as gold aura radiates from him as everyone involved looked surprised by it, except for Antonio. Then, in a flash, a being with a dragon head attached to a human body, with the hands and legs on fire, all covered in gold, appeared from Elior, Marco looks at it in shock.

"This is...?" Marco said with wide eyes as Angie and Jackie had shocked expressions on their faces, but Antonio simply smirks as he answers, "That's right, Elior also has, what you call, an evil spirit. An evil spirit under the complete command of Elior's will, and his name is... GOLDEN DRAGON!"

Golden Dragon does some fire like whips and grabs Marco through his neck, wrists and ankles and whips him around before flattening him up on the wall before he can move, "It's hot, I feel like I'm on fire. My arms, they're burning. What are these evil spirits?" Marco asks himself quietly while struggling with the flames.

"What's Marco doing? Why is he flattening himself against the back wall?" Tom asked as he observed the scene in shock as Higgs said as she looked at the thermometer, "Yeah, I don't get it! But do you feel how hot is getting in here? Look at those numbers, that's insane! What's happening?!"

"Let him GO!" Star shouted as she sprinted to Elior, only to be caught and shoved to the wall, she looked at who did it and was shocked to see that Jackie had flattened her to the wall with her forearm on Star's neck, "Jackie, what are you doing?"

"Stay out of it, Star. Marco deserves to know everything." Jackie answered as Golden Dragon grabs Marco by the shoulders, lifting him up, only for another being to appear from Marco to break free from the hold. This being has ruby red skin wearing brown fingerless gloves with gold accents, crimson red wrestling tights with black trim and accents, black knee pads, brown boots with gold trim, a championship belt on its waist, and it has a head of a tiger, but it's crimson red instead of yellow or orange, the black stripes and white fur are still intact, it also has human like scarlet red eyes. Plus it's ripped and bulky, looking like an actual pro wrestler.

"Aha, there it is, it's finally shown itself! And the fact that it's so clearly visible, means it's incredibly strong!" Antonio demonstrated as Marco's 'evil spirit' stood there behind its owner, looking strong and determined.

"Let's do this. **Tongan Death Grip**!" Marco yelled out as his 'evil spirit' grabbed Golden Dragon by the throat with its right hand in a choking grip, Elior suddenly felt the grip as well on his own throat as the grip had become visible when Elior said as he's being choked, "I can't believe he's able to make it manifest so distinctly, well done."

"Your evil spirit is impressive too." Marco said as he was impressed by Elior's 'evil spirit' before turning to his grandfather and asks, "So tell me, nonno, you know about these evil spirits?"

"Of course I do." Antonio answered as everyone looked stunned at the scene, Elior then said, "Mr. Malenko, when you asked me to help get your grandson out of his jail cell, I had planned to go easy on the boy. But in might of his tremendous power, I'm reconsidering that. Just one misstep, could put us all in danger. Tell me if you want me to stop, if not, I'll resort to a use of force that can lead your grandson in the hospital."

"Like I said, do what you gotta do." Antonio replied in a stoic fashion.

"Yes sir! **Gold Bind**!" Elior yelled as a golden fire like rope began to tie Marco up, pulling him to the bars, with his arms outstretched, they were put in a painful submission maneuver with the bars as leverage, which in turn, Marco screamed in agony as the fire began restricting his breathing.

"What's up with this heat?!" Janna questioned as Eclipsa then said, "What in the world is going on here? None of this makes any sense!"

Angie then grabbed her father's right arm before begging, "Papa, that's enough, what are you doing to Marco?!" But Antonio reassured her, "Angela. Be a good girl and let papa finish what he started. Okay?"

"I can't... breath..." Marco stated as the creature began to phase into Marco as he was about to pass out, Jackie looked at it and said, "The evil spirit is withdrawing." Then Antonio stated, "The heat is restricting his breathing, which causes the evil spirit to weaken. And now for the truth. This may seem like an evil spirit, but it's far from it. Marco, this thing, you believe has possessed you, is actually a powerful vision, created by your own life energy. This vision will always appear, standing by your side, and because of that we call it: **A Stand**!"

"A Stand?" Marco parroted as Elior then said, "Remember Aesop's fable: _The cold wind made the traveler pull his coat tighter, but the heat forced him to admit defeat._ Ready to leave your cage now, Marco?"

Everyone then looked at Marco, as they desperately waited for him to answer yes, unfortunately, Marco declined once again, "I've said it before, I'm staying. I keep hurting other people without even knowing I'm doing it. Until that stops, I'm staying here. It's nice to meet someone like me, but if you keep this up: morirai." Then, out of nowhere, Marco kicked the table that was behind him, sliding with an impressive force to break the toilet that was on the cell, sprinkling water to put out the fire, much to Elior's surprise.

"He just broke the damn toilet, that's destruction of property!" The cop exclaimed in surprise as the chief had a look of shock on his face.

Marco gently touched the floor and retrieved his arms after they received some damage, "You had your chance." Then his Stand gripped on the cell bars, "Alright bastard, don't say I didn't warn you." The Stand then broke the cell, making a giant hole, fit for a person to enter and exit, then it took a broken bar pipe and lays eyes on Elior, just as it was about to strike, Elior turned his back on Marco as Golden Dragon phased through Elior, walking away as Marco looked confused and annoyed, "What the hell? Why'd you suddenly turn your back on me? We're not done!"

Elior turned around and sat on the floor, his back leaning against the wall, "Mr. Malenko, he's left his jail cell, I have accomplished what you asked me to do, right?" Elior asked, only for Antonio to nod in reply before turning his attention on his grandson, Jackie released Star as both girls turned to the main subject: Marco. Everyone else did the same, they were amazed by how much Marco has changed physically. Marco took off his new crimson red vest and dropped it, showing off a burgundy tank top with the words 'Rebel Heart' written on the front in white, while also revealing how much he toned up, his Stand phased through his owner, disappearing as Marco caught the broken pipe, he strolled his way to Elior, only to point him with the pipe.

"Are you telling me that I won this fight?" Marco asked as he ignored the stares from everyone.

"Not exactly. I truly did plan on sending you to the hospital, but I did not expect such power from you." Elior answered as everyone involved, sans for the cops, approached the scene.

"If I hadn't stopped this steel rod, what were you gonna do if I could strike first?" Marco questioned.

"My Stand's name is Golden Dragon. It could only melt a steel rod like this one in the air with ease." Elior said as he pointed the rod before moving it away from his face.

"Elior has the same power as you do, Marco." Antonio told his grandson before Marco threw the rod at Higgs as she easily caught it and dropped it on the floor, Antonio continued, "You don't have to stay in that cell to research your evil spirit any longer." Marco then stood there.

Everyone in Echo Creek, humans, monsters and other creatures alike, stood in front of the police station as everyone involved in Marco's case stood out, but the real shocker for the humans was the return of Echo Creek's former mayor, everyone started asking questions, even the press, but Antonio shoved them aside because his only focus was his grandson's sudden abilities and Angie told everyone that her father will answer their questions in three days for the welcome back party at city hall.

Marco's family and friends head over to the park where they decided to tell Marco about his newfound power. "Oh, thank goodness. Marco finally came out of that horrible cell." Angie spoke as she was talking to herself.

"Knock it off, you're such an annoying bitch." Marco said in an annoyed tone, everyone were suddenly disappointed by his attitude adjustment, knowing that after his fight with Star 3 years ago, he was not the same Marco they knew and loved, "Okay!" Angie replied cheerfully.

"Hey! How dare you call your own mother a bitch you punk, huh?! And, Angela, stop smiling after he just called you that!" Antonio said angrily after Marco said that, "Okay!" Angie replied cheerfully, again.

"Nonno, there's one thing... I'm gonna ask you about one thing I don't understand. Why did you know about my evil spirit- no, my Stand or whatever? That's what I don't understand." Marco asked in a stoic, yet serious tone. "I was gonna say the same thing. Maybe this might be the right time to know." Jackie said as she looked at Antonio. The former mayor sighed at this.

"Very well then. I came all the way from Venice to explain that. But in order to explain it, I must start at the beginning. This has to do with the Malenko family." Antonio said as he dug through his coat pocket as everyone looked at him, desperately for an answer. "First, take a look at these pictures." Antonio took out the pictures, showing the fishing boat and the empty brown coffin and the name HUGO.

"What are they?" Marco asked, "That's a hundred year old coffin pulled up from the Atlantic Ocean, off the African coast four years ago." Antonio answered as Marco and Jackie looked at the pictures, "Coffin?" Jackie asked.

"After I obtained and researched it, I found out that it was on the boat where my grandfather, the man four generations before you, Ricardo Malenko, died." Antonio said as Angie was surprised by this, but Marco didn't care as his grandfather continued, "It was apparently empty when we discovered it. But I know exactly what was inside! Elior and I are trying to locate him as we speak."

"Him? Hold on a sec. You're making it sound like there was a person in there. Why would you call something lost at sea for a hundred years "him"?" Marco asked curiously as his mother and Jackie nodded in understanding.

Antonio slammed his hand on the table, "He is evil incarnate! His name is Hugo! He has awakened from his hundred year sleep. We are fated to fight him!" The former mayor explained as Marco turned his away as he finds this explanation unbelievable and slightly stupid.

"What was that, Mauricio?! Don't make a face like this has nothing to do with you!" Antonio yelled at Marco as if he was being ignored, Marco then faced him, "This face means, "That was so stupid, I don't know what to say," Abuelo." Marco replied as Antonio scoffed in response because of the Spanish nickname.

"Elior, was it? I don't know who you are, but you're really full of yourself. And Old Man, do you expect me to hear such a crazy story and say, "Oh I see," and believe it?" Marco asked in a nonchalant tone as he still refused to believe it.

"But is it not a fact that our evil spirits are crazy, as well?" Elior responded as Antonio sat down before saying, "Well whatever. Soon, you'll have no choice but to believe. If you ask me why I know of Hugo's existence, and why I'm after him..." Elior took out a camera and handed it to Antonio, everyone looked at big man confused.

"I'll show you the reason. Actually, about a year ago, I also suddenly obtained an evil spirit, or rather, the power of a Stand." Antonio declared, his daughter said in a shocked tone, "What?" Then his grandson said, "Old man, what did you...?" Before he could ask, Antonio slammed the camera on the table, "I shall show you! This is..." his right hand suddenly sprouted some emerald green vines, "my Stand!" And as a result, he karate chopped the camera, destroying it as a picture came out of it without any damage, he pulled the photo off before showing it to Marco.

"Did you see it? The thorns that came from my hand? This is my Stand! Its power is to take spirit photos of visions I captured from far off places! Though I have to smash and destroy a $279 camera every time I do it." Big Tony explained about his Stand.

"Can I ask something?" Janna asked.

"Janna, just shut up. You're ruining the moment." Jackie told her.

"The vision that's gonna appear in this picture, Marco... will be what determines your fate!" Antonio declared as Marco was a bit shocked about this, "Wait what?"

"Marco, Angela, Mariposa, have either of you ever looked carefully at the back of your necks?" Big Tony asked in a concerned tone.

"What do you mean?" Marco questioned.

"You've probably never taken a close look. But right around the base of my neck, there's a cross-of-Amalfi-shaped birthmark." Antonio responded as he pulled down the back of his collar, Angie moved her hair, Rafael moved the back of Mariposa's dress, and Marco pulled the back of his vest, all four bear the same birthmark of the cross of Amalfi.

"I'll ask again. What the hell does all this mean?" Marco asked, getting frustrated.

"I asked my mother about it, and she said that my father, who died when I was young, also had it. Apparently, those of the Malenko bloodline all have this birthmark." Antonio answered.

"Hey, old man, I'm asking you what's gonna show up on that photo." Marco growled as he's getting irritated.

"It is our destiny, as yet undiscovered!" Big Tony responded, "Papa..." Angie tries to reassure "Damn it! Just show me what's on it already!" Marco growls as he snatched the picture and looks at it showing the picture of a shirtless man with pale skin, a black mullet, a scar on the neck, and the Malenko birthmark.

"Hugo! He is always the one who shows up in my spirit photos. And on the back of his neck... From this bastard's neck down, is the body of my grandfather, Ricardo Malenko, WHICH THAT BASTARD HAS TAKEN OVER!" The ex-mayor exclaimed as everyone involved in this conversation looked shocked at what they're listening as Big Tony continued, "A hundred years ago, an incident occurred in the Atlantic Ocean. I only know what I heard from my grandmother, Marianna, but Hugo took over the body of my grandfather and survived! And this much is certain: He is currently hiding somewhere in the world, plotting something! It's been four years since he came back. The reason my spirit photos and your evil spirits all began manifesting in this past year... is most likely Hugo! The reason you had manifested yours, Marco, is because of the fight before your exile three years ago!" Antonio finished as he and Elior stood up.

Elior then said, "In the wider world, our gifts are considered psychic powers. I've had my stand since birth, but your powers are bound to Hugo's body... In other words, Ricardo's body, by invisible threads... Marco only activated his out of pure instinct. All we can say now is that Hugo's existence is what brought forth the powers that were dormant within you."

"Elior, from this photo, can you tell where he is now?" Antonio asked when he handed him the photo, Elior responded, "I cannot. There's hardly any background visible."

"Dios mío." Rafael blurted out as he understood everything from his father-in-law.

"As I thought." Big Tony said as he puts on his fedora.

"I'll take a closer look." Elior said.

"Please." Antonio replied as he looked at Angie holding Mariposa with a worried look on her face. "Oh, Angela. I apologize for bringing all this up so suddenly. Now, let's go home."

"Y-Yes..." Angie said before standing up with Mariposa in her arms.

"I'll call your mother so she can come here, it won't be a celebration at city hall without the whole family involved. And I'll stay at a hotel. I might need to practice my speech about the future of Echo Creek. Anything troublesome involved after all these years?" Big Tony asked as everyone went their separate ways.

"No papa, but I might have a feeling that the Purple Dragon Gang are gonna be planning a new scheme since you came back." Angie answered as Marco, Star, Jackie and Janna followed them before splitting up to their separate paths.

Marco walked home with his family as it later focuses on his birthmark, then the scenery changed to a dark mansion, still focusing on the Malenko birthmark, a man stood up and felt something.

He growled, "Again. Just now, the most intense feeling like someone somewhere is watching me. It is Ricardo's descendants, this body is sending out some kind of spiritual signal to his offspring." He stands at the staircase as a corpse of a young woman laid there with four finger holes on her neck, bleeding out, "Fine, it must be my fate, but fate must be purged. It's all set, I've taken the first step." This man walking down the dark hall is none other than Hugo von Kaiser, the vampire rival of WW1 legend, Ricardo Malenko.

**A/N: Well, that's chapter 1, Antonio, Elior, and Hugo finally make themselves known, anyway, the next chapter will be the city hall reunion, but I decided to add a wrestling match in it, which we will introduce to Marco's new best friend in Zoltán Farkas, a Hungarian aristocrat who, like Marco, exiled himself after he couldn't trust anyone, and his new girlfriend named Felicia Bianchi, daughter of the mafia don who's actually a reincarnated Hekapoo. If any of you are asking, yes the plot is very similar to Stardust Crusaders, only a bit more creative and different.**

**Translation:**

**Nipote: Grandson in Italian**

**Nonno: Grandfather in Italian**

**Morirai: You'll die in Italian**

**Abuelo: Grandfather in Spanish**


	3. Malenko vs Norling: The Final Chapter

**Here's chapter two, if any of you might ask about Antonio, think of him as Mike Haggar from Final Fight, only older and Italian. Also this chapter is also meant to introduce Marco's new girlfriend and best friend, Felicia and Zoltán respectively, but also a few more, like their families. This wrestling match I'm only gonna mention here is only one match, so I'm gonna try to be decent in writing this fight.**

**SVTFOE belongs to Daron Nefcy**

**JoJo's Bizarre Adventure belongs to Hirohiko Araki**

**Here we go:**

Three days later, as promised, everyone gathered at City Hall, only to find a short amount of barricades and a hexagon wrestling ring in the middle of the street. They began murmuring about a wrestling event in front of city hall in confusion, but that wasn't it, every human, monster, demon, creature, mewman, and hybrids alike, gathered in the street and rooftop, wanting to watch the speech in person, but they didn't expect to have a wrestling event involved.

Inside the building, Angie and Rafael looked nervous, Eclipsa and Globgor were calm and focused, Moon and River were patient and ready, Star, Tom, Janna, Jackie, Kelly, Ponyhead and Chloe were freaking out on the inside, Higgs looked ready to stand guard, Mariposa and Meteora looked confused about this, but Antonio, Elior and the current mayor of Echo Creek looked very confident and prepared for this. Only one person is missing, Marco Diaz. Marco told everyone that he will appear on his own time, he just needed to be alone for a while.

Ever since they released Marco from prison, he was still very distant from his family and friends, no one tried to talk to him, when Eclipsa offered him to welcome him back to the royal knights, he declined the invitation. Everyone were super worried about him, it's been three years since that fight, and it's gonna take a lot to forgive him. Antonio got a call from Flora that she will be arriving on time, and she's bringing a few people with her, because they deserve to see Marco. And on time she did, she entered the hall and greeted her husband and daughter with a hug, she did the same to her son-in-law and granddaughter.

"Everyone, this Flora, my wife." Antonio introduced as Flora bows to Eclipsa, Globgor, Moon and River as she spoke, "It is nice to meet you, my dear Angela filled me on all of you. This is a lot to take in."

"There's no need to worry, try to relax, we still have a lot to prepare." Eclipsa stated as she and Moon returned her gratitude.

"Thank you, your highness." Flora bowed once again before turning to her husband, "Antonio, they asked me to come along just to see our nipote, the don even brought his own daughter along."

"Really, I never thought the don himself would be bringing his own family with his team of gangsters." Antonio replied as Flora then said, "Trust me, he has never seen his daughter so in love in her life."

On queue, a group of Italian mobsters marched in and the don held his hand out to Antonio, which he politely shook it, beside him are his wife and daughter, Felicia Bianchi, she had a voluptuous body, long red hair, fair skin, rare amber eyes, wearing light makeup and wears a black and gold dress with high heels and bracelets to match, in other words, she looked super beautiful, she can attract all types of boys (and yes, that includes monsters and demons like Tom), Star, Jackie, Janna, Tom, Kelly, Ponyhead and Higgs looked a bit surprised, because they reminded her of their old friend Hekapoo.

"Ciao, I'm Felicia, Felicia Bianchi, mi amore, Marco, told me about all of you. And I have to say, it's quite the pleasure to be meeting you in person." Felicia greeted as she politely bowed.

Star and the others were surprised to see a picture perfect reincarnation of their former friend and ally, she held out her hand as, one by one, they shook her hand. The gang were confused when she mentioned Marco to them, they began to realize that she's Marco's new girlfriend, but the way she spoke, the way she moves and act are exactly the same as their favorite scissor forger, with or without the Italian accent.

Janna decided for the best course of action and speak her mind to the new Hekapoo, with bigger questions before the party begins, "Nice meeting you, if you need to know more about Marco, you have the right person for the job." Janna told her as she rubbed the Italian on her shoulders, only for Felicia to snap one of her pinky fingers in a blink of an eye.

Despite feeling a little bit of pain, Janna held it in, she hasn't felt this much pain since the bruised cheek she once received from Marco before his exile, a secretary came in and told the mayor, "Sir, it's time."

The mayor nodded at Antonio as he and the others stepped out of city hall, only to find the whole place outside fully loaded, they didn't expect to find a packed attendance to watch, not just the wrestling match that's holding outside of the building, but also the man that the people of Echo Creek once idolized before his resignation and departure in 2004.

The crowd began to cheer as the mayor stepped out with the living legend himself, the chanting for Antonio were what truly defined his career as a wrestler and politician. The mayor then signaled the people to stop, which they did, then he stood at the podium, about to make an announcement.

"You're probably wondering what was happening as of late? Well, it's time you finally knew, over the past two years, crime has become unstable since the first bombing of the bank, the subway takeover and the recent battlefield of good vs evil. We don't know why is this happening, but it became very clear that the Purple Dragon Gang has made their return, some had the chance to retaliate against both the royalty and the government. The rest of them didn't want to rejoin, and they decided to move on with their lives, this is the last straw that these criminals earn, I came here to announce my participation for the 2020 elections, and to my opponent, make sure you prepare the campaign, despite the Purple Dragon's utilities, I'll make sure that the people of Echo Creek won't suffer this wrath of terror ever again." The mayor finished and the crowd applauded and cheered before he continued.

"And speaking of the elections, there's also the very future of this society that everyone will be prepared for, once the nightmare ends, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, humans and monsters alike, one of the very best predecessors of this city's number of mayors, Antonio Malenko has returned here for a brief announcement for the next mayor in 2024, but let's hear his reaction to the situation that's happening right now, feel free to ask any questions you have." The mayor stepped aside and let Antonio take the podium.

Big Tony stood there as everyone looked at the living legend, taking his time to speak his mind about the situation at hand, now he's ready, "I apologize for not being in a celebratory mood this evening, and I appreciate the invitation to this outdoors, high-faluting, fancy ass event. It's just a blast from the past has been clunking inside my head and I thought that it's time for all of you to think about something different."

"'Why struggle, when tomorrow brings nothing to live for...' A bleak statement I've heard from a few of our own fellow citizens. Maybe some of you are unaware of the suffering of Echo Creek. My city! When did prosperity, contentness, and the right to not be murdered in cold blood becomes such a far fetched dream. I turned my back on my home once. I no-showed when it was at its weakest, crying out for help. Hell, no one showed. And our apathy gave way for the Purple Dragon to rise. The Purple Dragon "Gang" is not a threat. They are opportunists, preying on our undeniable weaknesses. Turning us against each other and pillaging us of our individual values. Only because... We. Let. Them."

Everyone listened, he was right, crime couldn't be stopped until they get what they wanted. Star was even impressed by his speech, Eclipsa too, he's the wrestler turned political figure that spoke the truth, fate can only be decided by them. A hand soon raised, getting everyone's attention, it was Andrea Hollander, one of Marco's former classmates, "Mr. former Muscle Bomber, Ex-Mayor Malenko, all this talk of the metaphor of sleeping beasts, and the current conditions of our city, there's one thing in my mind that everyone deserves to know, and despite being a fan of your wrestling career, this concerns the rivalry between your family and the Norling family. People have been wondering for a possible grudge match to settle the score, which explains the hexagon ring in front of our eyes, do you have anything to say about it?"

"I'm just as surprised as you are when the ring was here, but me and Thor are old men now, it'd be impossible for a grudge match to happen, hell, even our son-in-laws left the business to focus on their families, and even through some miracle, a wrestling match right here in front of us, it'll the greatest fight of all time. The Purple Dragons can enjoy themselves whenever they want, but in 2024, that will soon change." Antonio finished as night has fallen, which means that it was time for the wrestling match.

A ring announcer entered the hexagon and stood in the center of it, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you've been waiting for, the following contest is a Gladiator Death match! There will be no disqualifications, no count outs and no interferences, if anyone interferes and gets involved, they will suffer the consequences, at the hands of the contestants, the only way to achieve victory is by pinfall or submission. And it's for the GPW Universal championship!" He finished as soon as the lights go out.

**Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 IV** plays as a white light appears, forming 7 silhouettes, 4 women and 3 men, when the beat drops, the lights turned on again and revealed what were in the white light, a woman in her late 60s with shoulder length blonde hair with gray streaks, and a green well designed dress with matching high heels, stockings and bracelets; another woman in her 40s, wearing a highly decorated dress with stockings and shoes to match, has brown hair tied into a neat bun; a man in his 40s with a black suit, black long coat, platinum blonde hair and a neatly trimmed beard; a girl in her mid 20s with platinum blonde hair, a pretty face black, blue and white dress, dress shoes to match, a type of warrior crown and carried a teapot in her hands; a girl in her late teens, wearing a royal dress, brown hair in a high ponytail, fair skin and has heterochromia (green and lilac eyes); a man in his late 60s, stood 7'1" tall, has a Mr. T style brown Mohawk, a full grown beard, wearing a navy blue suit and he's super buff.

And finally, in the middle stood a young man in his late teens, green eyes, brown hair in a ponytail, wearing black trunks with blue trim, gold outline and a gold belt, black knee pads and blue boots with gold trim, gold wristbands with blue trim, he's wearing a blue sports jacket with a white towel on his neck, fair skin, and stood 6'4" tall, he looked bulky and ripped, and he's wearing a championship belt on his shoulder. They walked towards the ring, the man in the middle climbed on the steel steps, wipe his boots before entering the ring, the rest stood at ringside as the champion stood in the middle of the ring, hands behind his back before using his right hand to raise the title in the air, by the looks of it, he looked like a gentleman.

**Breaking Benjamin ****\- ****Firefly** plays as everyone were confused, where's the opponent, the song kept playing until the first chorus, a man came out wearing black tights with crimson red trim, a brown leather belt with a gold buckle, brown boots with gold trim and brown gloves with gold accents, plus he's wearing, what looked so familiar to everyone, a red hoodie, it's Marco, and this time he looked super serious, everyone cheered when he returned after three years. He walked towards the ring and jumped in through the top rope, he walked to the a corner and did a Randy Orton pose, after that he stepped down and took off his hoodie as the gentleman facing him took off his jacket.

"Introducing the challenger, from Echo Creek, California, weighing at 242lbs, the Siberian Tiger, MARCO DIAZ!" The announcer said as raised his right arm, "And his opponent, from Budapest, Hungary, weighing at 250lbs, he is the GPW Universal champion, the Scandinavian Wolf, ZOLTÁN FARKAS!" The announcer concluded as Zoltán raised his championship belt in the air with his left hand behind his back.

Zoltán handed the belt to the referee as he walked towards Marco, showing him the belt, knowing what's at stake, he lifted the belt in the air, the championship is on the line. Both men warmup and stare at each other as the bell rings, starting the match.

_DING DING DING!_

Marco and Zoltán pace around in circles before quickly getting the collar and elbow tie up, they hold on until Zoltán quickly grabs Marco from the waist and shoves him into the turnbuckle, rolling him evasively and hits a deadlift German Suplex in the center, he goes to hit it again, but Marco counters as hits his opponent's head with his elbow three times, finally letting go. Marco grabs Zoltán by his left arm and wrenches it as begins to lock the Crossface Chickenwing, but instead of locking it in, he had a different approach, he hits a strong Hammerlock Lariat, taking down his rival, Zoltán gets on his knees as he caresses his throat, feeling the power of his opponent, he then stood up. Both men get into a stare down as they look at the crowd, they decided to add more buzz in this fight, both men knew the rules of this match, they get in the collar and elbow tie up again, but this time Zoltán was just too fast and throws Marco down with an amazing Judo throw. The Hungarian gets on top of his opponent and punches his skull, blow after blow until the Mexican-Italian locks in the modified Triangle Choke, Zoltán began to choke, but he wouldn't quit, and uses his strength to lift the Tiger up for a powerbomb as he goes for the pin.

_1..._

_2..._

_KICKOUT!_

The people were going crazy as they watch, react, and cheer on as they become quite entertained by this, the Wolf and the Tiger got back up and Farkas hits a devastating DDT, he then tries to apply a Camel Clutch, but Marco was too quick to reverse it. He then applied a Pumphandle, lifting his opponent to drop him with a reverse STO, Diaz then went on the outside, he knows he's at a perfect range to attack his rival, he jumped in the ropes, performing a springboard Shooting Star, landing on Farkas, went for the pin, but Zoltán quickly kicked off before the ref would do something. The Wolf punches the Tiger in the gut before putting him in a headlock, he puts him in a guillotine choke, he was ready to win this, until Marco lifts him up to ram him in a corner at full force, Diaz picks him up to connect the Argentine Backbreaker, he goes for the pin.

_1..._

_2..._

_KICKOUT!_

Marco looks ready go violent, and he already knew the rules of this match, he picks Zoltán up and punches him in the face three times before throwing him out of the ring, the Wolf gets up quickly, only to be hit with a beautiful Tope Con Hilo by the incoming Tiger. The crowd went nuts as Marco picks him up and rams him in a corner, face first, and rams him again in the ring apron, Marco has him where he wants, and slides through the turnbuckle and performs a Tornado DDT, unfortunately Zoltán countered and held him, and with sheer power, rams him through the apron and suplexed him on the barricade. Farkas picked up a chair from under the ring and attacks Diaz on the back with it, not giving him a chance to recover, he picks him up and rams him to a corner, face first, and throws him back in the ring, only to put him up on top of a nearby corner to hit the Superplex, for the pin.

_1..._

_2..._

_KICKOUT!_

Marco manages to kick out in the last second, the fans are feeling entertained, but the fight's not over yet. Both men got up stared down as they stood in the center of the ring, Marco and Zoltán are ready to end this, there's only one option that will bring the highlights of their careers, and with adrenaline fueled power, both men's fists collided, and again, and again, they kept this up until it got faster and faster, creating a barrier out of thin air with trading blows. This kept on going, and out of the rules of cartoons, both men went to their opposite corners to drink from their teapots in the ring, leaving the barrier going. Everyone were surprised by this, but Antonio, Angie, Jackie and Elior knew something, Mariposa however, watched in awe, it was the Stands, they already knew Marco's, but the bigger surprise was Zoltán's, it's the same as Marco's, but it has a Wolf head and is wearing the same attire as Zoltán himself, plus it has different shades of gray, light gray skin, dark gray fur and trunks and boots. The boys returned to their collision as their Stands phased out, after a long back and forth action, Marco lands a hit, only for Zoltán to quickly recover and hit his finisher: the Wolf's Howl (F-5), and he goes for the pin, it's all over.

_1..._

_2..._

_...KICKOUT!_

Everyone started to go insane, Marco kicked out of Zoltán's most devastating move, the Wolf went out and picked up a sledgehammer, he slides back in, and was ready to bash Marco's brains out, but the Tiger, with an amount of adrenaline he has left, ran towards him, performed a Johnny Cage style split, dodging the hammer, and punched him in the nuts. Zoltán was stunned, feeling the blow that knocked the wind out of him, Marco decided to finish this once and for all, he hits his finisher: the Tiger's Roar (Jackhammer), but he needed to make sure he stays down for good, and grabs Zoltán from behind, turns him around and hits a Rainmaker Lariat, he goes for the pin.

_1..._

_2..._

_...3!_

_DING DING DING DING DING!_

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOUR WINNER, AND THE NEW GPW UNIVERSAL CHAMPION, MARCO DIAZ!" The announcer shouted as the crowd went wild, Marco stood up and raised his fists in the air. His family was in shock when they saw the fight, and they were impressed by it, the referee went to give the championship to Marco, but Zoltán got up and stopped him, took the belt, and placed it on Marco's waist. Marco turned around to look at his opponent face to face, and to the shock of their families, they hugged it out, fans stood up and applauded as the animosity between the two families has finally come to an end. Both respective bloodlines saw it, they're upset at first, but despite their longstanding rivalry between each other, Marco and Zoltán are the only ones that have finally put it to rest.

Marco's not done yet, he left the ring to stand in the podium with his family, and to the shock of the world, he made the ultimate declaration, "As my grandfather once said, Purple Dragon will be dealt with, if not, at 2024, I'll have to take matters with my own bare hands!" Marco stated as he announced his participation for the 2024 elections, the crowd applauded even the Norling family joined in.

**A/N: Phew, that was it, it's done. The songs I added here don't belong to me, they belong to their respective owners, Zoltán's theme song is actually WALTER's theme during his time in Defiant Wrestling, it's so good. As for Marco's, I chose to put Firefly by Breaking Benjamin, to pay tribute to the first SmackDown vs Raw game, to appreciate the nostalgia, I love the song and it was awesome. Anyway, the match took longer for me to write, but that's all I can do for now, thanks.**


	4. Who Will Judge You

**Alright, here's chapter three, time to see what happens next:**

Two days later, everyone went back to what they were doing, a limo was driving around as it stops at the Diaz residence, a man wearing a white button up shirt with a black and silver striped tie, a gray jacket and black slacks and shoes came out, it was Zoltán Farkas. "If you excuse me, I need to wait for my friend." Zoltán said with a Hungarian accent when he stepped out of the limo.

"I don't understand why would you be friends with a Malenko, they're our worst enemies." His grandfather, Thor Norling, stated with a Swedish accent as the Scandinavian giant looked at his grandson.

"This rivalry needed to end, it's time to move on from it." Zoltán replied as he told the driver to go, leaving him alone, waiting as Marco stepped out of his old home, wearing the same clothes when he was released from prison, he looked at his European friend, but before he can leave, his mother called him out.

"Marco, don't leave yet, you forgot something important. Silly boy. Here's your goodbye kiss." Angie called out as she kisses Marco's cheek, but the Italian-Mexican was annoyed by it.

"Grr, you're such a bitch. Stop clinging to me like I'm still a little kid." Marco said as he left the house to join Zoltán for a walk.

"Okay, have a nice day." Angie replied cheerfully.

Once they were walking, Marco tipped his hat, "What a giant pain in my ass." He said, commenting about the annoyance of his mother's cheerfulness.

As they walk through town, Marco noticed how much it changed since he left, but he didn't care, the first time he returned in Echo Creek, he got into a fight which led to his arrest, unable to get a glimpse of his hometown, until his release and the wrestling match. Zoltán looked at him and placed his hand on his shoulder, reasoning that he was stronger now and never look back, stoic as he is on the outside, Marco was at peace on the inside, but he's unable to feel any regret after three years.

A group of girls (the former cheerleader squad and other former classmates of Marco), saw the two men and looked at Marco.

Chantelle: "Hey, look it's Marco."

Hope: "What? Marco?"

Andrea: "You're right, it is Marco."

Diana: "Marco."

Sabrina: "Marco."

Andrea: "Hey Marco."

Hope: "What's up, Marco?"

Carrie: "Hey there, Marco."

Esther: "What's going on, Marco?"

"So tell me, Marco. Where have you been? We haven't seen you in three years." Sabrina asked when Marco turned to look at her, only for Sabrina to blush in a few seconds until Chantelle shoved her off.

"Hey! Who do you think you are, grabbing up to Marco like that? I don't like how friendly you're getting with, stay away!" Chantelle said out of jealousy.

"What the hell, ugly?" Sabrina countered.

"I'd be careful there, no boobs." Chantelle replied back at her, then she and Sabrina turned around ignoring each other before throwing insults again.

"Ugly."

"No boobs."

"Ugly."

"No boobs."

"Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly."

"No boobs. No boobs. No boobs. No boobs. No boobs."

Then they went to throw their insults, face to face.

"Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly!"

"No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs! No boobs!"

They went on like this as Marco and Zoltán stopped, and then...

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE FREAKING ANNOYING!" Marco yelled in annoyance, the girls stared at him quietly until they started squealing in fangirl fashion response when he said it.

"He totally said that to me!" Sabrina squealed.

"Nuh uh, me!" Chantelle squealed back.

Marco was annoyed by this, but Zoltán reassured him to ignore them before he does something brutal, they kept on walking, the girls followed them. Unknown to them, someone was watching from afar, a man was painting what looked like a picture of Marco wearing his former attire, red hoodie included. The two wrestlers approached the staircase to the park, heading down, the man applied red paint on his paintbrush and quickly slashed Marco's left leg, which in turn, was brought to life.

"Nani?!" Marco said surprised as he starts falling down, the girls were panicking when they saw him fall, then out of instinct, Zoltán jumped as he calls out his stand, Marco witnessed and did the same, they grabbed each other's right forearms and made a safe landing.

"Marco, oh my goodness." Sabrina called out, worried about him as she went to check on him, "He fell down the steps." Andrea replied as she followed, the rest did the same, "I can't believe those two made an awesome landing to break the fall." Hope reassured.

Both Europeans got up as Marco checks his left leg, "Did a branch slashed up my leg?" Marco asked.

"No, that's impossible. Something else must have made you fall down the steps." Zoltán answered.

"This cut is what came first, but how?" Marco asked as the girls followed suit to see if Marco was okay. The mysterious man walked towards the stairs to find his answer, "I see. Looks like he was able to summon a pretty fierce Stand. I get it now." He threw the portrait to a tree, the branches caught the painting, "Impressive, no wonder he wants me to get rid of him. But still," he waved the brush, causing the portrait to tear itself to shreds before throwing the brush off from his hand, "he is no match for the power of my Stand."

Then Jackie and Chloe saw what was going on, they decided to go check. When they reached their destination by skateboard, they realized that it was Marco and Zoltán, they were dusting themselves off from the fall, Jackie saw Marco's leg and went to check on him as other girls almost blocked her off with an opening.

Andrea: "You really scared me."

Hope: "Are you okay, Marco?"

Rachel: "You think you're hurt anywhere?"

Esther: "You're lucky. If you would've landed just a few inches off, you would've cracked your head right on the ground."

Chantelle: "Nasty accidents happen on the steps all the time."

Sabrina: "Tomorrow, when you go down these steps, you really should hold my hand."

The girls glared at Sabrina when she said that, she turned away in embarrassment, with a goofy smile on her face. Jackie looked at the scar and did the unthinkable, she opened a water bottle that she brought, and dipped her middle and index fingers in it, touched the scar and sealed the wound, closing it. Marco looked confused when his ex-girlfriend did that.

"What did you do?" Marco asked confused by Jackie's action. "Something Elior taught me, he and your grandpa were right about me having a Stand." Jackie answered as Marco bent down on one knee to check the wound, it was sealed shut, she wasn't kidding. Then Zoltán felt a dark presence and turned around to see a man around 6'1" in height with blue jaw length hair, tan skin, and wearing a black biker outfit. He also happened to be Asian, a Filipino to be precise, as Marco and Jackie stood up to look at him, his looks and features felt familiar, he looked like Janna.

"Here. Your leg seems to be bleeding." The man said as he hands a handkerchief to Marco. "You might wanna clean the rest of it with this handkerchief." Marco took it, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just a scratch." Marco replied as the man turned around to leave. But Marco called him out, "Hold It!" The man stopped and turned around to look at him, "I forgot to say thanks. Haven't seen you before, are you a tourist or someone's relative?"

"I'm Loki Ordonia, and yes, I arrived here for a family visit last night. See you around." The man, now named Loki, turned and walked away, Marco, Zoltán, Jackie, Chloe and the girls looked at his direction as he continued to stroll. The girls said "Oh", one by one when they saw the new guy.

Andrea: "So his name is Loki, seems pretty cool."

Hope: "You think so?"

Sabrina: "I still like Marco way more than him."

Chantelle: "Yeah, me too."

Diana: "Same goes for me."

Marco then touched his neck to feel the birthmark, the scene was changed to a dark room, with a minimum amount of light, as Hugo also felt the birthmark on his rival's neck down, getting flashbacks.

"At that time, I was very weak. Lacking a body made me vulnerable. If I had not taken, Ricardo Malenko's body," poses with the arms extended, "if it hadn't been for his energy, to commit my own limited source, I couldn't have survived at the bottom of the ocean for a hundred years. But still, his body has like a bond between a parent and a child, it ties me to his kin." Shows the faces of the Malenko bloodline, from Ricardo, to Lorenzo, to Antonio, to Angie, and finally Marco.

"They seem to know of my existence, and with this power I've gained by taking Ricardo's body, the Stand." Hugo walked through the dark halls as the candles light up and blew off when he walked forward, "It is the Stand that reaches out to the bodies of his descendants," he stopped at a mirror, "there are always advantages and disadvantages to every situation. I will eliminate them all. The Malenko clan must be destroyed soon."

Meanwhile at the Butterfly castle, Antonio and Thor were playing chess, they were invited by Eclipsa to discuss the issue of Hugo von Kaiser and his whereabouts. Their families are also invited for the sake of their exiled boys, to keep the hatchet buried.

"For once, I might have to agree after all these years of hatred, time changes everything." Big Tony said as he moved his knight piece to eliminate Thor's rook piece, "It would have remained an eternity if things were different and their exile wouldn't have happened, this is exactly why we still hate each other, even during the Cold War." Thor replied as he moved his king piece a little forward.

"Wouldn't change a damn thing for all that, Elior, how could you stand being here for no matter what happens after this?" Tony asked as a maid brought two cups of warm tea, Elior stood against the wall, drinking his own tea before saying, "I find it quite fascinating, every texture and history behind it's eras of royalty, revolution, and legacy between its legends."

"Fair enough." Tony replied to Elior's answer as Thor said, "You Russian bastards think that you are clever, but it's not a game when it comes to your madness and nuclear capabilities. Radiation, power, incidents, even the missile crisis and revolutionary wars in Europe, it's madness. This is exactly why you Soviets have gone mad." Thor finished as he sips his cup of tea. "You're right, I may be of Russian descent, but I'm not a communist. You don't have to put your blame on me for everything we've done in the past, every regime has a downfall when they can't give their people what they want." Antonio replied in honesty as he moved his queen close to Thor's king, "Checkmate."

Thor grunts in defeat, but smirked as he accepted this fair loss, "By the way, about Hugo... Antonio, if you and Elior are aware of his existence, would it not be safe to assume that he knows about the two of you as well?" Eclipsa asked, desperate to know the answer why.

"Hmm. We don't know what powers he might have, but we have to remain alert for anything that gets in our way. It's not how," Antonio took a sip of his tea, slowly, and suddenly a mewman noble fell off the roof, screaming when he slipped off, Tony put down his cup on the plate, followed by a loud thud outside, the noble moaned, indicating that he's still alive, "it's when."

Later, at a nearby café close to the park across the street, the gang is all together (Marco, Star, Jackie, Janna, Alfonso, Ferguson, Tom, Kelly and Ponyhead, along with Chloe, Higgs, Felicia and Zoltán), sitting at three different round tables, about to catch up with each other now that Marco's back, but he still refuses to make eye contact with anyone except Felicia, Zoltán and Jackie. "This will be a great reunion to remember, what should we do right now?" Janna asked. "Depends on who has the right idea. Anybody interested? 'Cause I got nothing." Higgs said as she drank her coffee, "None of us have anything planned, what about you Marco?" Tom asked the crimson man in question as Marco didn't bother to say anything.

"Screw you." Marco replied in a rude manner, Zoltán decided to take action, "Easy Marco, no need to be angry right now." The gang were impressed by the Hungarian, then Ponyhead asked a certain question for Zoltán, "How did you met the Earth Turd? I'm curious about it."

"We met in Finland, Marco was in Russia to leave his past behind to focus on his Stand ability and physical prowess. I was Sweden following the same pattern as Marco's." Zoltán answered as Kelly asked a question that needed an answer, "Why would you go there, what happened to you?" "A complete disagreement with my family about the royalty and the government, I had to save my elder sister from being assassinated by burning the marriage contract, led to a disaster and misunderstanding, which then turned into a fight. Couldn't hold back anymore, that was how I earned my Stand, they were afraid of change, but I don't fear it, and I went on exile in Scandinavia."

"Wow Marco, congratulations, you just found a ponytailed doppelgänger." Janna joked as she took out a thermometer, a piece of paper and a pen, Marco and Zoltán didn't bother to laugh, everyone did. "I'll be in the bathroom." Marco grunted as he stood up from his chair to escape the conversation, suddenly the handkerchief slipped off his pocket, he picked it up and suddenly, "What the hell is this?!" There was a note written on it, written in perfect Japanese writing, it read, "Marco Diaz, today I will murder you with my Stand! - Loki Ordonia."

"Loki?" Marco questioned when he hears some whipping, he turned to see Janna flinging and swaying a pen in her hand back and forth, her skin went pale, her eyes glossed over and foam came out of her mouth, "H-Hey Janna, w-what're you trying to do?" Ferguson asked as Alfonso took a step back in fear.

"What does it look like? I'm just shaking up the thermometer to reset it." Janna said, sounding sober and unstable, "That's not a thermometer you got in your hand." Ferguson said when he noticed the pen as Alfonso replied, "Yeah, that's a pen."

"Aw come on, did you just say pen, do you think I'm dumb, does this look like a pen to you?" Janna questioned as Marco, Zoltán and Jackie noticed a silver string around Janna, which might be the cause of how she was controlled like a puppet, but couldn't find the origin.

"Tell me something. Just how stupid are you two boys?" Janna asked savage as she continues to shake herself violently. If you honestly think this thermometer I'm holding looks like a pen do you? Then maybe. You need to. Get a. Closer. LOOK!" Janna shoved the pen on Ferguson's left eye, everyone began to scream in fear, except for Marco, Zoltán and Jackie. Then Ferguson regained his composure and screamed out loud after getting stabbed.

"What the..." Marco tried to question this situation as Janna pulled the pen out of Ferguson's eye.

"My eye! My eye!" Ferguson yelled in fear, feeling the pain from his left eye.

"Marco. Don't tell me you also think that this is a pen... Okay?!" Janna yelled as she threw herself to Marco, intending to stab him, only for him to quickly catch her wrist. Janna was able to push through and stabbed him in the cheek, Marco didn't flinch, Star, Tom, Kelly and Felicia tried to pull her away, but she was heavy as a rock, which doesn't make sense.

"What is this strength? What kind of woman is this strong?!" Marco questioned as he tried to pull Janna away.

Jackie remembered what she saw since no one else sans Marco, Zoltán and herself couldn't see it. "We saw something strange crawling on the floor earlier. Was it a Stand?"

"Loki Ordonia. He was the one who cut your leg on the stairs." Zoltán said, finding out what happened earlier.

"Indeed it was." Everyone turned around to see where the voice came from, it was Loki Ordonia, and he's sitting on the table behind them, holding a mannequin like marionette.

"Y-You're..." Jackie tried to ask, but was interrupted.

"Hey, it's you again." Loki said as he looked at the situation and started moving the marionette. "It seems that my cousin is being controlled by my Stand. Attacking my Stand will mean hurting her, Marco."

"You bastard. Who the fuck are you?" Marco asked as he held his ground, Loki simply answered, "I told you earlier, Loki Ordonia. My Stand's name is Silver Terminator. I am only human, but my loyalty lies with _him_... Therefore, I will murder you!"

Loki then moved his mannequin, controlling Janna as she shoved herself closer to Marco, her shirt was unbuttoned from the top, revealing her bra, then Marco saw a pair of small lights inside her mouth, out of instinct, Marco did the unthinkable, bringing himself closer to Janna's face... and kissed her. Everyone looked at the action, some of them even had their jaws dropped at the scene. Then Marco pulled away, only to pull out the Stand from Janna's mouth, it was a silver humanoid wearing a silver space marine armor with black spandex, a silver skull and forearms and red glowing visor, covering the eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt her. Now that I've dragged it out... I understand. It's just a lame Stand that's so pathetic it can only possess people."

Marco's Stand bit down on Silver Terminator's head making Loki grimace. His Stand pulls the rest of Loki's Stand out of Janna. Janna falls to the ground in a dead faint until she was caught by Star. Marco's Stand gives Loki's Stand a strong punch before grabbing it by the neck and head, holding it up.

"Is that the best your Stand can do, Loki? It's all silver like there's an exoskeleton inside the armor." Marco said, "You're gonna regret dragging it out of her Marco!" Loki shouted, "I can see my finger marks on your forehead, meaning that if I crush it, your will be crushed too." Marco stated as his Stand squeezes Silver Terminator's head making Loki wince.

"He's going to keep a grip on you for a while." Zoltán said. "Come on, we're gonna go see Marco's Italian grandfather. We're sure he'll love to meet you Loki, we would love to hear more about Hugo." Jackie replied.

Suddenly, Silver Terminator opened big holes from its hands, catching the Stand users attention.

"What are these things on the Stand's hands? Missiles?" Marco noticed.

"As I said, Marco. You're gonna regret this. Take this, my Stand, Silver Terminator!" Loki announced as everyone took cover, Jackie formed a solid wall made of frozen water that came out of nowhere.

"Everyone take cover!" Marco shouted.

The missiles are ready and out of nowhere, "**Missile Barrage!**" Loki shouted as a bunch of missiles blew out of Silver Terminator's hands. Marco's Stand put its arms up to block the attack, but the missiles connected with the Stand's chest, exploding and blew Marco away to crash into a wall, spitting up blood.

"Marco!" Star cried out to him as Loki walked to the fallen crimson boy.

"How's that? **Missile Barrage.** My Stand Silver Terminator excreted what appeared to be weapons of war, which in reality was a vision of destructive energy! It pierced right through your Stand's chest. As a result, your insides have been torn to shreds. And so have hers." Loki stated as blood came out of Janna's mouth and passed out, everyone screamed at the sight.

"W-What? I'm positive that I pulled the Stand out of her." Marco sat up as Janna continued to bleed out.

"As I said... attacking my Stand would mean having to hurt her. My Stand can reach further than yours, but it doesn't like open spaces. It prefers to hide within something. If you drag it out it gets angry. That's why when you wrenched it from her throat, she was harmed." Loki finished as Zoltán's Stand appeared to defend its owner when the frozen wall Jackie made, began to manifest itself. Reverting back into liquid water, it began to take form as it formed into a mist and drenched off from itself, it's Jackie's Stand, in a form of a beautiful woman.

It had bright azure blue skin and a feminine human face, long curly turquoise hair, decorated with sea shells and wore a crown, it's wearing a cobalt blue sea shell armored bra, cobalt blue gauntlets on both arms with silver details, and a navy blue mermaid tail, it also has royal blue eyes and a silver trident for a weapon. It also wore robes of a Greek goddess, and the tail looked to be made of armor, a large amount of cleavage and an hourglass figure, a look of determination appeared on its face, looking for a fight.

Everyone looked at Jackie, she felt prepared to defend herself, but to Zoltán, Marco and Loki, they were surprised to see her Stand, they never saw something so beautiful like that. Loki then said, "So you're a Stand user, you'll just be another problem for his plans. All you have to do is let me kill you, and my cousin would've walked away unharmed." Marco had enough as he stood back up and stood beside Zoltán and Jackie, "And still, you get up. You are so pathetic, you're nothing more than a sandbag, about to be pummeled by a skilled boxer. Why even bother standing up? I'm just gonna knock you down again."

"Look... No one ever said that Marco Diaz was just a safe kid. I beat the crap out of people, more than I have to. Some are even still in the hospital. I've had idiot teachers who like to talk big, so I taught 'em a lesson, and I never came back to class. If I go to a restaurant and the food's bad, I'll make it a policy to stiff 'em with the bill. But, even a bastard like me, can spot true evil when he sees it. True evil are those who use the weak for their own game, and crush them on their foot when they're through. Especially an innocent woman." Marco spoke out like a pro wrestler as he continued. "And that's exactly what you've done. Isn't it? And your Stand gets to hide from the victim, the law, and the consequences. That's why... I will judge you myself!" Marco proclaimed as he tipped his hat.

"I'm evil? See that's where you're wrong. Evil is always the loser, it's the victor who has justice, the victor being the last man standing. And how you win in battle is irrelevant!" Loki said as Silver Terminator attacked.

Marco, Zoltán and Jackie split up to dodge the attacks, Zoltán's Stand threw a table at Loki, who used Terminator to grab and break it easily. Zoltán and Jackie got caught in the wrists and ankles by Loki's Stand, and finally caught Marco entirely by Terminator's liquid metal fingers. "See the loser's always the evil one. Time to finish you off!" Loki declared as Silver Terminator prepared for its final strike.

"Really? The loser's evil?"

"**Missile Barrage!**" Loki shouted as missiles were launched directly at Marco.

"Then let me show you." Marco said as his Stand appeared and shrugged off the attack.

What?! There's no way! No one can just deflect the Missile Barrage!" Loki shouted in shock and disbelief.

"Just how evil you are?" Marco questioned as his Stand grabbed Silver Terminator by the neck, shaking it violently.

"**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!**"

Loki felt the pain as blood spewed out of his mouth. The Tiger Stand raised his right hand and formed a fist and punched the cyborg Stand rapidly.

"**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!**"

"I'll teach you justice... WITH MY STAND!" Marco proclaimed as his Stand made a final punch, which blew up the wall in front of the café, cars to break the glass and make huge cracks on the street. Loki flew out as blood exploded from him, Star saw it, which sent shivers down her spine, reminding her of the fight three years ago.

"Your Stand has incredible power." Loki stated as he fell to the hard ground, passing out.

"You caught me by surprise earlier, scratched its chest a little. I'm glad my Stand isn't weak, but sometimes it feels like it can get more savage than I am." Marco explained as he went to check on him as Jackie followed with Janna in her arms. "Anything?"

"She's passed out, but she'll be fine. We just have to treat her wounds after what happened." Jackie said as Marco carried Loki, deadweight on his shoulder, "Follow me, the old man might give us some answers once we interrogate him. Got nothing to do anyway." Marco replied as the gang went to the Butterfly castle as the day goes by.

Meanwhile at the Butterfly castle, Marco and Zoltán's respective families walked down the hallway as they wait for the meeting to finish, while time went by, Mariposa somehow flinched, which caught the attention.

"What is it, sweetie?"Angie asked.

"I don't know... I think Marco needs help." Mariposa said, until...

"No I don't." A voice answered, everyone looked at the source of it and they saw Marco with the gang, Janna extremely wounded in Jackie's arms and an unknown person on Marco's shoulder.

"Marco?! Why are you here?! What happened to Janna?! Who's this young man?! Why's he covered in blood?! Don't tell me... You did this?!" Angie asked in shock and worry.

"This doesn't concern you, tell the old man to head to the infirmary. Sucks to be back in this place again." Marco said as he and the others follow him to the infirmary.

"Don't worry. We're still progressing through all these years." Jackie reassured as she followed her ex with the others.

_"Oh Marco, you never tell us anything... Even though I... I... I worry so much about you. But I know, deep down, you're a sweet boy."_ Angie thought as Marco stopped and looked at her.

"Hey." Marco called out to his mother.

"Uh... Yes?" Angie asked.

"You look a little pale. Are you okay?" Marco questioned as Angie gasped with eyes wide.

"Yay! Fine, thank you!" Angie answered cheerfully, giving him a peace sign. Marco didn't bother to smile, he kept on walking as the others followed.

In the infirmary, a few nurses had treated Janna and Loki's wounds as Zoltán filled everyone in on what happened. Antonio looked at Loki and gave a disappointed sigh, which caught Marco's attention. Then Janna started to wake up.

"What happened...?" Janna asked, confused about what transpired.

"Don't strain yourself, Janna. You were out cold. You'll be fine." Jackie reassured as Janna laid down to rest, she looked to her left to see her cousin, passed out beside her.

"Well, this is not good. He's done for. He's not gonna make it. He'll be dead in a matter of days." Antonio said as Marco had a look of disbelief. "Marco. It's not your fault. Look, the reason this young man swore loyalty to Hugo and came to kill you... Is right here!" Antonio moved Loki's hair, revealing a moving flesh type thing on his forehead.

"What is that?!" Marco questioned.

_To be continued..._

**A/N: Hey, sorry it took so long to get this ready, I apologize for that. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'll see if I try work on the next one.**


	5. The Curse of Hugo

**A/N: Phew, wow that was a long time. Anyway, here's chapter four.**

"What is that? It looks like a spider or piece of flesh." Marco questioned.

"Please tell me it's not a spider." Star said getting behind Tom looking a little sick.

"Is that what made him swear his allegiance to Hugo?" Zoltán asked.

"Yes, it's a flesh bud formed from Hugo's cells." Elior stated.

"Ugh, I think I'm gonna throw up." Kelly murmured.

"The flesh bud connects directly to the boy's brain. Flesh buds are small but they have the power to influence a person's thought and actions." Elior explained.

"Hmmm, that explains his strange behavior. But why would he swear his allegiance to Hugo since he came here to kill us, well Marco in Hugo's case?" Jackie asked remembering everything involving the vampire in question.

"Simply put, that bud stirs him and awakens a certain feeling far beyond his control. Charisma! The sheer emotive power that drives a soldier to follow a dictator or a believer to put his faith in a corrupt cult! This young man revered Hugo and that's why he swore allegiance to him!" Antonio announced as the sound of a church bell echoed in the background, "Hugo knows how to wield the power of charisma! Which means there will be others he will try to influence. He ordered this young man, Loki here, to kill us all and he won't stop until he has." He finished.

"So remove the bud." Marco said.

"No, the brain is pretty delicate if he even twitches while we extract it, it could cause brain damage." Big Tony said.

"Whoa, depending on how possible might be, that would be super cruel to kill him." Janna said.

Elior turns to Marco, "Marco, I need to tell you something. Four months ago when I was still there in Cairo, I encountered Hugo!"

Marco, Jackie and Zoltán look mildly surprised by this as the scene change to a flashback of Elior's encounter in Egypt.

Elior walked around town at night, "I am a fortune teller by trade. I have a shop called Khan el-Khalili. It was a full moon that night, and there he was." He then climbed up the stairs, but he stopped when he saw someone, "He just stood at the top the stairs outside my shop, silently with eyes so cold it felt like he was invading my heart. Dark hair and translucent alabaster skin, but most of all a dubious sensuality the kind you wouldn't expect from a man. Because Mr. Malenko warned me about him I knew exactly who he was. Hugo! Resurrected from the depths of the Atlantic."

Hugo looked at Elior as he began to speak, "I hear you have a special ability beyond that of an ordinary person. This true? It would please me if you grant me a small demonstration." He licked his lips after that, his hair began to move and form flesh buds.

"It was then that I found him to be truly terrifying, every word he spoke calmed my heart. The dangerous sweetness in his voice is precisely what makes him so terrifying!"

"Elior, come here." Hugo called out as Elior screamed in fear, Hugo began his attack with his flesh buds, Elior fortunately jumped out of the window and ran for his life, escaping from Hugo's grasp.

"I ran for my life. I didn't dare think of fighting him. I was very fortunate, because I had prior knowledge of Hugo I was able to realize who he was. I immediately jumped out the window, the bazaar was a labyrinth but I knew it like the back of my hand and thanks to that I was able to escape."

The scene changed back to present time, "Otherwise, I would have ended up like this young man here. Another follower controlled by a flesh bud." Elior finished.

"You would have died a few years later with your brain completely devoured," Antonio said.

"Died? Let's not jump the gun," Marco said stepping up to Loki, "Loki's not in great shape, but he's not dead yet!" Marco summoned his Stand, "Jackie, hold his head still, I'll pull it out with my Stand."

Jackie nods her head and sits on her knees right next to Loki's head. She gently grasps his head making sure to keep it steady.

"NO MARCO STOP!" Antonio shouted.

"Hold still. Dedushka just back off! I can remove this thing without damaging his brain. If my Stand has the precision to catch a speeding bullet, then it can also do this." Marco said.

"Listen! That flesh bud is alive, can't you see that the flesh bud lives outside of his body for a reason! Even a skilled surgeon can't remove it without serious damage!" Tony yelled.

"Mr. Malenko," Jackie said getting the man's attention, Antonio faced the girl, "it's alright, if anyone can do it… it's gotta be Marco."

Marco's Stand reached forward and grabbed at the flesh bud, as soon as the Stand touched the flesh bud it reacted shooting out a tentacle and striking Marco's hand.

"It just sunk itself into his flesh. This is bad! You have to let go, Marco!" Elior said.

The Flesh buds tentacle start to burrow itself into Marco's hand quickly moving up his arm.

"It can infiltrate anyone's brain who dares try to remove it!" Antonio cried.

Suddenly Loki's eyes shot open he tried to move his head, but Jackie held him still. He moved his eyes upwards spotting the flesh bud digging deeper into Marco.

"Why… are you-?" Loki tried to ask.

"Please don't move and try to stay still. If Marco doesn't perform this, your brain is fried." Jackie reassured.

Marco's Stand had a strong enough grip on the Flesh Bud and started to slowly pull it out.

The more Marco's Stand pulled at the flesh bud the deeper it dug into Marco. It moved up his arm and quickly reached his neck.

"No Marco! It's already reached your neck! You have to let go!" Elior reached forward to Marco.

"Hold on Elior!" Antonio put his arm forward stopping Elior, "My nipote is very impressive. That thing has made it halfway up his body and he's completely calm. Not even a tremble from either him or his Stand. He can move with even more precision and strength than I ever anticipated!"

The Flesh bud dug deeper and was now on the side of Marco's face, but the flesh bud was almost out of Loki.

"Marco, you can do it. You're almost there." Jackie thought.

With one last pull, Marco's Stand completely pulled out the flesh bud.

"He did it!" Elior said.

"YEAH!" Janna cheered.

"YAAAAAH!" Marco's Stand threw the flesh bud and it flew towards Big Tony.

"YAAAHHH! OVERDRIVE!" Antonio shouted hitting the flesh bud as it disintegrated into ash.

Loki sat up grabbing at his forehead.

"Easy. You took one hell of a beating earlier." Jackie put her hands on Loki's shoulders as Janna helped him up slowly before saying, "Its good to see you again cuz." Loki then replied, "Thanks Janna." Marco stood and headed out the room, but stopped when Loki called out.

"Tell me, why did you risked your life to save me?" Marco turned around when he heard that. He looked at Loki before tipping his cap and turned away saying, "Don't know... I don't really have an answer for that." He walked away as Zoltán and Higgs followed suit. Loki smirked as Janna hugged her cousin gently.

_"Marco... I see right through you."_ Angie thought as she smiled, knowing that there's still the old Marco in him.

As the medic tends Loki's wounds, everyone decided to go see what Marco's up to. They hear the sound of metal clashing with... a whip? They went to the training field to find Marco battling monsters and knights with a peculiar whip in his hands like they were nothing. Everyone were horrified by the massacre caused by the former red knight, but Antonio knows what that whip is, it's a golden chain connected with a brown strapped silver hilt and a silver spearhead with the Celtic Knot engraved on all sides, the chain is about 10 feet long.

Most of the monsters were injured and unconscious, the rest were killed and incinerated by the whip itself. The knights however, got the similar result, but minority were killed, the rest were injured and crippled, but would recover, Higgs had enough and stepped in with two swords in both hands. The fight went on for two minutes as Marco managed to disarm her with his whip and beat her to the ground, despite taking a beating throughout her training, Higgs felt brutality within Marco's fists as a new experience. As the crimson man finishes his tunic wearing rival, a hand stops him.

He looks up to see a beautiful woman wearing a long black and purple dress, a purple long coat with a black belt, a big black Celtic Knot on the back of the coat, and black boots. She also has long purple hair that reaches her knees, amber eyes, red lips, and pale skin, she also has a curvaceous body and vampire fangs, she looked at Marco in a serious manner as she said, "I believe she's had enough, Marco."

"You're early." Marco said as he released Higgs, Zoltán approached the standing duo as the witnesses did the same.

"Where are the others?" Zoltán asked the lavender skinned lady.

"They're gathering two cups, which I believe you know the reason." The lady answered.

"And I thought you isolated yourself after the Pillar Men incident, Sibella." Antonio said to the dhampir in question.

"Pleasure to see you again Antonio, but when I heard about Hugo, I knew it was only a matter of time before he does anything." Sibella replied as she approached Angie and caresses her cheek.

"Everyone, this is Sibella, she's the dhampir Godmother of the Malenko clan since the late 16th century, as of now she's my mentor and guardian until I'm ready." Marco introduced Sibella to the witnesses as a voice gets closer, they noticed four other newcomers for the party:

A 6'0" tall African American man who sounds like one of those comedians from the internet, a 6'3" tall cowboy with light tan skin and light brown hair, a 6'0" tall Japanese samurai with short hair and an actual katana, and a 5'11" tall Spanish girl who's wearing sorceress robes, light skin, long auburn hair and no witch hat, just a hood.

"Easy there, partner, you need to step up your game for all this." The cowboy reassures his comrades as he gives his black friend a cup while he holds the other one.

"You're an idiot Clint, we came for- oh... Hello Marco." The sorceress sarcastically greeted when she saw Marco.

"¡Cierra la boca, Reina!" Marco said, but the sorceress, now named Reina, stood there unfazed by his outburst.

"Woah... Easy... Just calm down and introduce these new people, right?" Star said trying to prevent more heat from escalating.

"We're only do actions than speaking. Not interested." Clint said adjusting his cowboy hat.

"Well I can't believe that I have to team up with a Malenko of all people!" Reina yelled out.

"Okay, what happened between you two anyway?" Tom asked Reina and Marco, which he's referring to.

"I'm much more of a man to say... This bitch blames my grandpa for her grandpa's death, the same way he blamed my great great grandpa for her great great grandfather's death, even though it was an honorable sacrifice." Marco answered as everyone turned to Reina, surprised.

"If you mean mad or accepting, then I agree." Reina said as she scoffed in disrespect.

"¡Te veré al infierno!" Marco shouted, getting close to Reina's face.

"¡Pondré tus pantalones!" Reina yelled back.

"You guys realize that we're feeling in a way here so... we'll just..." The black man called out before clearing his throat and he, along with Clint and Zoltán pick one of the nearly deceased knight, Sibella joins them, leaving Marco and Reina in a glaring contest.

"I believe that you have seen enough. I suggest you leave, all of you." The samurai spoke to Eclipsa in his Japanese accent, as she instructed the others to leave, Star, Jackie and Higgs stayed behind.

Zoltán picked the knight up and held him behind him as Sibella took the opportunity to stab the knight on both sides of the cranium with two knives. She pulls them out as blood pours out of the head.

"Clint, Mike, collect." Sibella instructed as Clint, the cowboy, and Mike, the black dude, picked up the cups and moved to fill the blood. Clint fills his, but Mike however...

"Wait, hold on. My shit ain't working. I think it ran out of blood." Mike stated as blood bursts out spraying it on Mike in a comedic manner before stopping and pour out.

"All that blood, right in his boner, partner." Clint commented and chuckles at the scene.

"Clint, don't laugh, okay? Mike, relax. This blood is serving you." Sibella said as blood pours out on Mike's side.

"Oh shit. I did not sign up for this shit to serve me in my mouth. This shit's still warm. I think he got a fever." Mike stated as he fills his cup.

"You know why you signed up for. You've proven your worth, Mike. You, Clint, Daisuke, Zoltán and now Marco have shown their true potential through practice and combat, we knew this disaster would come, now it's Reina's turn to prove her worth." Sibella replied, the cups are filled and the dhampir decided to drink the rest of the corpse before it dries off.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you insane?" Jackie asked.

"It doesn't matter, Jackie. But you've seen far enough." Marco replied, he turned to leave, Sibella and Jackie followed as the rest stayed and allowed Reina to begin her test.

Sibella explained that she came here to be alert of Marco's destiny once he faces Hugo. Happily reunited with their godmother, Antonio and Angie allowed her to stay as long as she wants. The rest of the day went well, Reina passed her test and she, along with Clint, Zoltán, Mike and Daisuke, stayed in Echo Creek to help Marco out with readjusting in his old hometown, even with his current personality, Marco remained stoic and cold, but he still can't reconcile his old friends, Loki decided to crash in Janna's place once he's fully recovered on the next day.

On the next day, Antonio and Flora Malenko left the hotel to visit their daughter. Jackie Lynn Thomas left her house to go to Marco's place. Sibella got up and took a bath. Meanwhile, Marco Diaz got up to check his phone, but stopped after he noticed something odd. "_That's weird,_" he thought "_Something's not right._"

Rafael Diaz left his room a bit early, Elior Neumann passed by… before stopping at the sight of a spoon on the ground outside the kitchen. With a sense of dread, he entered the kitchen…and next to the open fridge, he found the unconscious bodies of Angie and Mariposa Diaz, with Rafael worried about what happened to his wife and daughter. "Mrs. Diaz! Mariposa! Please, wake up!" he shouted, trying to rouse her, Rafael placed his hand to his daughter's head. "She's got a high fever…is she sick?" he asked, before Elior noticed a small ghostly vine next to Angie's neck and a revealing humanoid ghost in Mariposa.

"No. NO. NONONONONO! Forgive me, Mrs. Diaz" he exclaimed, before turning Angie over and pulling her shirt down to expose her back…revealing a mat of ghostly, glowing strawberry vines. "No… How did this happened? They're transparent, they have **Stands**. Mrs. Diaz and Mariposa have manifested their own **Stands**!"

"Mrs. Diaz and Mariposa gained Stands as well. But this high fever, their Stands are doing damage to them. We are so relieved that Hugo's body only affected Mr. Malenko, we were so certain that your wife and daughter were fine Mr. Diaz. But, that's just what we wanted to believe, it's impossible for them to escape that." Elior reassured, knowing what's happening.

"As long as they have Malenko blood there will inevitably be an effect from Hugo. But still... A Stand is controlled by an person's own mental strength and they move according to that person's fighting instinct." Rafael said, putting the puzzle pieces together, everything he learned from the Israeli in front of him and his father-in-law.

Flashbacks show Angie and Mariposa, all fine and happy, "Angie is a kind and peaceful woman, Mariposa is only an infant, willing to follow her own path in the future, but they don't have the power to resist Hugo's curse. They don't have the strength they need to control their Stands." Flashbacks end after Rafael explained, resuming to the kitchen.

"This has to be why their Stands are making them so ill, it's acting against them, not with them. This is bad, at this rate, they'd die! They'll be overcomed!" Elior stated until he and Rafael finally noticed Antonio, Flora, Sibella, Marco and Jackie in the hall.

"They have Stands?" Tony whispered, "Angela…"

"Che….." Marco clicked his tongue in anger.

"Oh my God..." Jackie whispered.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tony shouted pushing Marco against the wall, which surprised everyone. "This is the one thing I feared the most! This is the very last thing I ever wanted to happen! My daughter and granddaughter have developed Stands as well. I've always known... they're too weak, they can't withstand it. I knew if this were to come it would destroy them. They don't have the strength needed to repel Hugo's curse!"

Marco grabs Antonio's arm and pulls the man away before saying, "Tell me, what can we do."

"Okay… to start we must find Hugo. The only way to break this curse is to find Hugo and kill him!" Big Tony said.

Angie and Mariposa had been moved to the castle, in the infirmary. Rafael and Elior managed to explain what happened this morning.

"Finding him is the problem." Antonio said as he showed pictures of Hugo in the dark background, "No matter how many times I've tried, he's always hiding in the darkness. In every spirit photo I take, the background is black. We won't be able to locate him with my photographs."

"We've used various methods to try and analyze them, but with this darkness, we always come up with nothing." Elior said as he looked at one of the photos.

Everyone looked on, knowing that all hope is lost. The evidence that they have are proven difficult due to the dark background Hugo's on, making things even worse. Marco, however, refused to quit, he wants to prove his worth as a Malenko.

"Hey, you should've mentioned this to me sooner." Marco said as he took one of the photos, "Let me look... I might be able to find out."

Marco summoned his Stand to look at the picture, "What's hiding in the darkness?" The Stand looked at the picture, its pupils shrink and gets a better look at it, "It's found something within the shadows."

Marco takes out a notepad and a pencil, "My Stand and Zoltán's can move accurately enough to pull a flesh bud from someone's brain and catch a bullet. Let's have mine sketch what he sees."

The Tiger Stand begins sketching with accuracy and lighting fast speed without stopping, not even looking away from the photo to determine what it is. The Stand Users involved, sans Zoltán and Loki, looked very impressed. When it stopped, they looked at the drawing.

"No way! It's a fly through all that!" Elior shouted when he saw the sketch.

"Yeah, but how in the hell is a fly gonna help us?" Tony asked.

"Wait a second... I've seen this fly before. Do you have any encyclopedia?" Elior asked Marco.

"There's a library in this castle, but the Earth related ones are at the town or at school for better solutions." Marco answered.

"Let me have the sketch. I'll do some research." Elior said, Marco handed the Israeli the drawing and went outside.

Angie woke up, getting the attention from everyone.

"Angie..." Rafael said immediately out of worry and stands by her side.

"Are you alright, Mrs. Diaz?" Star asked.

"What happened? I was about to make breakfast and I passed out." Angie replied, until she saw Mariposa unconscious, "What's wrong with Mariposa?"

"Calm down, Angela... How do I put this nicely? You and Mariposa manifested your Stands and you're about to die." Sibella said nonchalantly.

Everyone looked at the dhampir in disgust when she said that. Except Marco, 'cause he was about to say the same thing.

"Way to break the silence." Tom said out loud with sarcasm.

"Shut up, Tom." Marco barked back at the 8'4" tall demon prince.

"Marco, come on, do something good for once." Jackie said, wanting for Marco to make something for his mother to be happy. Instead, Marco looked at Jackie with a cold stare, piercing through Jackie's soul, "Love your biceps." Jackie blurted out of fear and turned away.

"Goodness..." Angie mumbled.

"Try to rest, cara. Marco try to get some water." Flora said as Marco left to get some water for his mother and sister, unaware that Janna and Loki had arrived.

"What do we do now? Standing around won't be enough for all this." Jackie said.

"True, but I think it's time to see how your Stand works in battle, come with me." Sibella said, recalling about Jackie's Stand ability, Zoltán followed suit, in case she needed a sparring partner.

"Star, we'll be at the courtroom if you wish to join us." Moon said as she, River, Eclipsa, Globgor and Meteora left the infirmary, leaving Star with Tom, Rafael, the elder Malenkos, Angie and Mariposa.

At the Butterfly castle library, Elior looked at Earth Encyclopedia book in the Earth section as he felt someone coming and said, "You seem to be doing well."

Loki and Janna were surprised.

"Sorry, but I'm a little busy right now." Elior said.

"Can your Stand really do that to you? Kill you?" Loki asked.

Elior looked at him, then returned to the book before saying, "Yes. I have seen far too many people suffer exactly that same fate."

"Really?" Janna asked.

"It's limited to her back right now, but that Stand will grow like a fiendish vine... and it won't stop until her whole body is overtaken and bound, but for the little one, her's will crush her like a compactor, their fever will rise and their illness will worsen. They'll fall into a coma and never wake up and then... they'll die." Elior explained, which shocked the Ordonia cousins before continuing, "Then your average person will see this as some rare and unknown disease, no doctor will be able to treat it... and normally, neither you nor I can do anything about it." Loki looked down in despair, "But there's still hope, it'll take 50 days for their bodies to reach that state. We just have to find and defeat Hugo before that. If we can severe the link their Stands have with Hugo, we can save them."

Marco arrived and thrust a glass of water into Angie's hands before he turned his attention to Mariposa, feeding her with a baby bottle. Angie downed the water quickly, rather thirsty from her ordeal.

"Thank you for that Marco. I didn't know that was going to happen to us. I can't believe Mariposa and I had Stands and passed out like that." Angie said.

_"Because it's on her back, she can't see it. But she deserved to know what's happened." _Marco thought.

"Try not to push yourself any further." Big Tony reassured his daughter before turning to his son-in-law, "You may have grown soft over the years, but you're still in shape for another round in the wrestling ring, as a matter of fact, you're still the same punk who stood up against the Purple Dragon Gang as I remembered."

"Gracias, I just couldn't leave her side after Marco was three years old, knowing what else might happen when I was gone." Rafael replied as he turned to Angie, caressing her hair.

"You might feel better if it makes you happy, cara." Flora said to her daughter.

"Alright." Angie attempted to get out of bed, "Marco, let me take care of Mariposa-"

"Hey! Don't move, you just stay in bed!" Marco yelled surprising everyone.

"I... just meant you should stay put," Marco pulled down his hat, "At least until your Stand is stable. Now be quiet and get better."

"He's right. Rest..." Star said.

"Ah, Okay," Angie said laying back down.

"I kinda like this. Everyone's so nice when I get sick. Having a little cold isn't so bad from time… to time." Angie's voice started to fade out.

Marco looked at his mother surprised as she had passed out again.

"Angela? Angela! Say something...s-she lost consciousness again," Flora cried.

Rafael held one of Angie's wrist and put his hand on her forehead, "She has a pulse, but it's slow and her fever has spiked again."

"Everything okay?" Everyone looked at the doorway and saw that Sibella, Jackie and Zoltán returned and brought Higgs with them.

"She was doing just fine a second ago, but this fever is so bad. She was just putting on a good front. I know she didn't say anything but my daughter is definitely aware of her Stand. She was doing her best keep it stable. My guess is that she didn't want us to worry about her. My daughter's always been like that." Antonio explained.

"Mr. Malenko." Elior came into the room, "I found it, I know where that fly came from. "

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

Elior showed them a book, "It's this one. The Nile Ue Ue fly."

"Egypt?! Antonio shouted.

"And we've narrowed it down to the city of Aswan. Hugo is there." Elior told them.

"So he is in Egypt after all."

Everyone looks up to see Loki and Janna at the door.

"Loki..." Marco said.

"Hey, how was your rest?" Jackie asked.

"I'm fine, thank you for the reminder." Loki nodded to Jackie.

"What do you mean by that?" Antonio asked Loki.

"The flesh bud was implanted into my head three months ago. That was when I met Hugo. I was on a trip with my dad to Egypt. We were there touring the Nile," Loki explained.

"You were in Egypt too. It seems for some reason, Hugo wants to stay in that area," Elior said.

"So when are we leaving? Because I'll be going with you." Loki stated.

"Huh?" Elior said.

"What?" Antonio said.

"Really?" Jackie asked.

"Seriously? Why would you wanna do that?" Marco questioned.

"To be completely honest I have no idea why I want to either. It's just something I feel compelled to do." Loki said.

Marco scoffed looking away.

"Let's just say the two of you opened my eyes." Loki tapped his forehead, Jackie smiled at the response, while Marco cracked his neck in response.

Big Tony stood up and went over to Angie, "Angela, we're gonna save you and Mariposa no matter what. You have my word. There's nothing for both of you to worry about. We are gonna make you two better I promise. Just take it easy and rest."

"Mrs. Diaz here has the ability to calm a person's soul and put their minds at ease. People feel relaxed just by being near her. This may sound strange, but if I ever fall in love, I wanted to be with someone like her. I feel the need to protect her, I'd do anything to see her feeling better and smiling." Loki stated.

"Indeed... There's no time we leave immediately!" Antonio announced.

The castle door burst open as several men in suits enter unannounced, the guards arm themselves to strike, Eclipsa went for the signal, but Antonio interrupted.

"Don't attack, we can trust them, their doctors from the Donatello foundation. They're going to stay here and take care of Angela around the clock." Antonio said as he came out wearing a gray button up shirt, clover green slacks with brown suspenders, brown combat boots and combat gloves and his brown leather duster and fedora, while Elior wore the exact same outfit he wore when he first arrived.

Marco, Zoltán, Jackie, Loki, Star and Higgs came along, joining them on the journey, wearing new outfits for action:

Zoltán wore a blue t-shirt, black slacks, brown boots, gray combat gloves, a brown belt and a tan coat with the Hungarian coat of arms on the back and brown straps on both shoulders.

Loki's outfit is more of an Arnold Schwartzeneger look in Predator, complete with face paint, combat gloves and headband.

Higgs had on a Lara Croft style outfit, with straps to bring her swords to battle since she's more comfortable with weapons to fight.

Star came in wearing orange tights, a gray top, white hand wraps, black boots, a brown belt and brown strap, she also wore her old red hairband with devil horns, she had her hair in a ponytail for one hell of an adventure.

Jackie wore sapphire blue tight shorts, a navy blue crop top, black biker gloves, black armbands, black boots, silver knee pads, her beret and a black leather jacket, unlike Star, she let her long hair down, however, like Star, she wore her favorite seashell necklace.

Marco has his own brand new style for this adventure, he wore a black t-shirt with a white Celtic knot embedded in it, dark blue jeans, brown boots and gauntlet like brown gloves with gold trim, he wears a hoodie which brought nostalgia to his old friends, but this hoodie is made of leather, crimson red with black sleeves and a big black holy cross in front of it, he wore a different cap, it's crimson red adorned with a gold button in front of it and a shield beside it with a holy cross embossed in the shield.

"Star... You're going with them?" Moon asked, worried about her daughter.

"I'll be fine, mom. Higgs and I will handle this, even if we can't see them." Star answered as Eclipsa approaches.

"I'll try to put the All-Seeing-Eye spell on your left eye, so that we'll see as the journey progresses." Eclipsa said before performing the spell on Star's left eye.

"This will be one hell of a war." Higgs stated before putting on face paint.

"Don't get cocky." Loki replied and hugged his cousin goodbye, he promises that they'll make it through.

Jackie said goodbye to Chloe before joining the Vampire Hunters, "We ain't got time to lose, we won't know how many enemies might be."

"Buona fortuna, Marco. Whatever you do, fight back." Felicia bid farewell to Marco with a goodbye kiss.

"But you're not going anywhere without this." Sibella stated as she hands Marco the Vampire Killer whip.

"Out of all the things my bloodline did to save the world, they never get tired of hunting Dracula." Marco quoted as he grabs the whip and kisses the hilt before storing it in his pocket.

"Keep an eye out in town for any crime, be prepared for anything when we return." Antonio told Rafael.

"You can count on me." Rafael reassured.

"Marco, Zoltán, Jackie, since I am a fortune teller by trade I'd like to name your Stands before we go," Elior said.

"Huh name it?" Zoltán questioned.

"How do you do that?" Jackie asked.

"With tarot, the cards of fate," Elior declared holding up a deck of cards. "Do not look, but let chance guide your choice. It will not only suggest us your destiny, but also the abilities of your Stand."

Zoltán lifts up the first card and grabs the second one.

"The Wolf card, I shall name your Stand... Wolf Sultan." Elior said as Jackie pulls a card from the very bottom of the deck.

"The Mermaid card, I shall name your Stand... Azure Mermaid." Elior said as Marco lifts the stack up and grabs the one from the middle.

"The Tiger card, I shall name your Stand... Crimson Tiger." Elior finished.

**Marco Diaz - Stand Name: Crimson Tiger, abilities: Precision and Movement and Extreme Strength.**

**Zoltán Farkas - Stand Name: Wolf Sultan, abilities: also Precision and Movement and Extreme Strength.**

**Antonio Malenko - Stand Name: Emerald Mage, abilities: Spirit Photography.**

**Elior Neumann - Stand Name: Golden Dragon, abilities: Fire and Heat.**

**Loki Ordonia - Stand Name: Silver Terminator, abilities: Long distance possession and Missile Barrage.**

**Jackie Lynn Thomas - Stand Name: Azure Mermaid, abilities: Water Manipulation and Hydrokenisis.**

"Alright, we're off! Let's hit the road!" Antonio said as he, Marco, Jackie, Zoltán, Elior, Loki, Star, Higgs put a pose, ready for an adventure.

In a dark room, a hand covered in purple vines lightly karate-chopped a Polaroid camera, causing it to spit out a Spirit Photograph of Marco, Antonio, Elior, Jackie, Zoltán, Loki, Star and Higgs sleeping on an airplane. This hand is revealed to belong to Hugo himself…it seems he has a Stand very similar to Emerald Mage. "As I thought… they found out where I am." he says, "So then... will you come to Egypt, Antonio and Marco?"

Antonio suddenly wakes up with a startle. "He saw us! I definitely felt Hugo looking at us just now!" "Yeah…" Marco responded. "Be careful… a new Stand user could already be on this plane." Antonio noted. In the shadows, we see a large beetle flying around the inside of the plane…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N: First off, I like to apologize, this chapter was originally supposed to be posted on November, but it didn't give me enough time and I was procrastinating. By the way, I decided to introduce the new characters in this chapter to help me with this, parts of it are from the scenes of "That 70s Show" in the jewelry shop scene where Fez and Fenton argue, it was a funny scene to be honest. Another part was from the Netflix movie "The Babysitter" where King Bach got sprayed with blood. The new characters are Sibella, the half-blooded daughter of Dracula, her name and appearance are similar to the character with the same name from Scooby-Doo and The Ghoul School, I had that movie on VCR as a kid, but as years went by, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic; Clint the cowboy is named after Clint Eastwood because of cowboy films, I never watched any, but I saw Million Dollar Baby and it was good; Mike is inspired by King Bach and Kevin Hart, but named after Mike Epps, I saw their movies (and vines in King Bach's case) and they really made me laugh, they're very good at comedy; Daisuke the samurai is the only guy I came up with, seeing if the way of the samurai might still pull through, more of a Samurai Jack type character; and finally, Reina Castillo is a sorceress and the Castillo clan is like the Zeppeli clan from the JoJo series, I actually named the character after an old high school friend of mine, I still remember her and a few people I knew before heading to college, boy how time passed. Anyway, I'll be finishing my first semester before heading to the second semester, I might still have time to do some chapters this month.**

**Translation:****Dedushka - Russian for grandfather/grandpa**

**¡Cierra la boca, Reina! - Spanish for Shut your mouth, Reina!**

**¡Te veré al infierno! - Spanish for I'll see you in hell!**

**¡Pondré tus pantalones! - Spanish for I'll be wearing your pants!**

**Gracias - Spanish for Thank you**

**Buona fortuna - Italian for Good luck**


	6. Tower of Gray

**A/N: Hey, here's chapter 5, also I would like to say thanks to ****_Karlos1234ify _****for the reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying this. Alright let's see what our Vampire Hunters are up to...**

_Hugo's Fortress, Cairo, Egypt:_

"All this fear is a natural emotion, present in all animals. Now my lord, tell me… what do you think of this fear? Heh heh heh…" comes the voice of a short, elderly woman with a staff, standing before a shadow-shrouded Hugo.

"There is the kind of fear that is born of animal instinct, and the fear born from the rational mind that terrorizes humans. Namely, when you encounter a foe stronger than yourself and realize you have no way of fighting back against the unknown… your helplessness begins to sink in, and invokes within you a terrible and paralyzing fear."

While this is happening, Hugo summons a scantily-clad prostitute from the shadows, one who willingly allows her blood to be sucked by the vampire lord's long, strong fingers. "When you are faced with such a fear, a number of options before you from which to choose. You might struggle, resist, flee, accept or freeze. But upon meeting lord Hugo, a new unexpected reaction arises!" The old woman continues, as the dead hooker drops to the ground.

"You feel…JOY!" The elder lady exclaims.

At this, Hugo chuckles and responds. "How do you think most people react once they feel joy and fear? It's an interesting experience."

"Our friend is currently on the plane that Malenko and the others have boarded… he'll meet them accordingly and they'll find it utterly impossible to reach their final destination in one piece. HE-HAHAHAHA!" The elderly woman finished, as the scene fades into mist…

_United Airlines Flight 180, somewhere near Taiwan:_

It's dark aboard the United Airlines flight currently ferrying the Vampire Hunters to Singapore on their way to Cairo. Higgs suddenly awakens upon hearing a strange buzzing noise. The group silently peers around the plane, gesturing to each other. What appears to be a small insect is buzzing around in the shadows on the far end of the cabin. At this, Marco rises to his feet. "A Rhino Beetle… no, it's a Stag Beetle!"

Antonio leans over the back of Elior's seat. "Hey Elior, is that a Stand? Are we already encountering another Stand user?"

"It's possible." The fortune teller replied. "This could be a Stand that took the shape of an insect." At this, the beetle suddenly ducks into the shadows of a row of seats, much to Antonio's surprise.

"What the... it hid in the shadow of the seats." Antonio pointed out as Marco walked forward, slowly.

"Is that so? It could be anywhere." Star said.

Suddenly, Zoltán points to Marco's head. "Marco, it's next to your head! Look to your right!"

Everyone looked at it, Star and Higgs couldn't see because they don't have Stands, but they followed their eyes and kept quiet.

"Woah, it's huge... it has to be a Stand!" Loki said sounding amazed.

"No doubt, it's here for us!" Jackie exclaimed, as the beetle opens a mouth of distinctly not-insectlike teeth to reveal a proboscis tipped with sharp teeth, it's mouth leaking yellow foam.

"That's disgusting." Marco remarked. "Just sit tight, I'll take care of it."

"Be extremely careful. I've heard that there's a user with an insect-like Stand that likes to rip out the tongues of its' victim before they die." Elior warned.

Marco summons Crimson Tiger, and tried to karate-chop the bug Stand… only for the insect to move at the last moment, outspeeding even Marco's unbelievably fast Stand, much to the shock of Elior.

"It dodged you. I-I can't believe it, it's faster than Crimson Tiger, a Stand that has the speed and precision to catch a flying bullet!" The Israeli wonders aloud.

"Then there's no doubt about it: that bug can only be a Stand. Where is he? Where's he hiding? Where's the one who's controlling it? We need to find him!" Loki said.

The bug-like Stand then fires its' proboscis at Crimson Tiger twice, first damaging its' left hand, then cutting his lower lip open in an attempt to steal his tongue. Marco didn't move, but his Stand miraculously stopped the attack with its teeth. "Crimson Tiger stopped it with it's teeth just in the nick of time!" Big Tony exclaimed.

"Just as I feared… it's going after Marco and his Stand's tongue. It's him, representing the Tower card of the tarot. Symbolizing calamity and the interruption of journeys, this Stand is called… Tower of Gray!" Elior yelled. "I'd heard he's responsible for countless mass murders, which he made it look like unfortunate accidents. One plane crashed last year in Turkey, the cost of over 200 deaths was likely his work and how many more of them had been over the years… I've heard rumors, but to think he'd team up with Hugo!"

At this, Marco brings his head up and yells out "ORA!" Crimson Tiger lets out a mighty barrage of punches while shouting "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" The enemy Stand manages to dodge all the blows effortlessly, however, it did break the proboscis from the face.

"It dodged that attack too?! Not just from a single hand, but it also dodged a true physical barrage of blows! It's so fast!" Zoltán exclaimed at this. Then, the sound of psychic laughter starts to emanate from the Stand's mouth.

"HEHEHEHEHE! Even if you had 10 guns to shoot bullets from one centimeter away, they would not be able to touch my Stand. Not that you would kill a Stand with a gun anyway, you're all going to die with the rest of these weaklings." Claimed the voice coming from the bug.

"_It has to be on this plane with us… Who is it? Who is the one controlling the Stand?!_" Antonio thought as he glances around the plane's interior. "_Which one of the passengers is he? If we can track him down, we can squash him._"

Then, in the blink of an eye, Tower of Gray vanishes for a few moments.

"_It disappeared again._" Marco thought out loud before the bug reappeared, hovering just behind a row of passengers.

Loki spotted it, "Heads up, it's over there now."

"_No… it can't be...!_" Elior thought, panicking slightly.

The Stand then flies forward at breakneck speed, entering and exiting the heads of several passengers in the blink of an eye, before exiting one's mouth, its' proboscis stabbed through three severed tongues, which shocked the Hunters. "Bingo! I got their tongues… and now for the best part!" And using the blood from the tongues, the Stand writes in English cursive on the plane's front wall "MASSACRE!"

"No! It actually did it!" Higgs cried.

"Fine... I'll burn that damned bug alive!" Elior roars, summoning Golden Dragon.

"No Elior, just hold on a second!" Loki's voice came. As he says this, an elderly man with a bald head and grey moustache stands up.

"It's so damn noisy on this flight. What's with all the ruckus?" The old man wondered.

"Be careful!" Loki yelled out to the old man.

"Oh well, time to use the bathroom" he says, the bug buzzing inches from his face, ignoring Loki's warning before placing his hand on the bloody wall as he turns the corner.

"Huh... why is this wet? What's with all the slimy stuff?" The elder sniffed it, "Hey it's…" at this point, the old man panicked so hard that his false teeth dropped out of his head. "AAAHHH! BLOOD! THIS IS BLOOD!" He freaked out for a few more moments, before Loki knocked him out with a swift blow to the back of the neck.

"We have to defeat it before the other passengers start to panic. Easier said than done though. Elior, using an active Stand, like your Golden Dragon, inside an airborne plane could make it explode, killing all of us. Marco, Zoltán, if your powers would to rip a hole in the fuselage it be a catastrophe. This calls for a quiet indiscreet Stand, my Silver Terminator is most suited to defeating it. Let me take care of the pest control." Loki declared as he confronts Tower of Gray.

"HEHE-AHAHAHAHA! Loki Ordonia, eh? I've heard all about you from Lord Hugo. Don't bother, you think you have silence on your side. But your Stand cannot keep up with my speed!" responded the insectoid Stand.

"You sure about that? **LASER VISION!**" yelled Loki in response, before Silver Terminator shot out harmless laser beams from its eyes. Tower of Gray dodged with ease, much to Loki's frustration. "**LASER VISION AGAIN!**"

"You seem to think that you can hit me if you fire enough shots, but you haven't hit me at all!" With that, the enemy Stand extended its' proboscis, clamping down on Terminator's mouth, causing Loki to slit blood and collapse in pain as the others were horrified by the attack.

"I'm just too fast for you! You're way too slow to get a bingo! And Loki, with my next attack, I'll stab out your Stand's tongue with this tower needle and rip it out! Won't that be fun?" The sadistic Stand shrieked.

"Damn! Impossible! How can he win if his attacks won't find their mark?" Elior shouted.

"He'll go mad from the pain once I rip his tongue out! How exquisite!" The Stand yelled in excitement.

Loki grinned slyly.

"Is that right? If my tongue is ripped out I'll go mad from the pain? My Silver Terminator will go mad alright…"

And with that, several silver liquid-like tentacles shot from the seats, ensnaring the bug-like Stand. "WHAT?!"The insect cried.

"If it rips you apart, it'll go mad... from pure joy!" shouted Loki. "Its appendages have already slipped beneath the seats, I just needed enough time to set up my little trap. You didn't realize that I was using my **Laser Vision **to keep you in one spot?" With that, the silver tentacles shredded the beetle into tiny pieces.

Nearby, on the floor, the old man awoke with a start, shrieking in pain. His tongue, adorned with a stag beetle mark, was sliced in half lengthwise, followed by blood exploding from his body.

"So that geezer was the user all along, huh? Guess I should've expected as much. Repulsive Stands usually have repulsive users." Higgs said. After propping the old man up against a seat, his hairline was parted.

"Well that's strange. It doesn't look like he has Hugo's flesh bud in his forehead." Star noted, twirling her hair around a finger.

"Tower of Gray was always evil. He killed tourists by the hundreds and got paid for it. He'll make it look like an accident, and got away with it every time; I'm sure Hugo was able to use him because he was easily bought and blinded by greed." Elior responded, placing a blanket over the creep's face.

Suddenly, there was a strange groaning noise and a cup falls and rolls forward.

"Something's wrong, it could be my imagination. I get the feeling that the plane isn't flying straight anymore." Antonio pointed out.

Then Jackie loses her balance, falling towards the floor until Marco grabbed her hand and pulled her back up. "Thanks Marco… I lost my balance for a moment; it was like the plane tilted."

"No…" said Antonio, looking at a cup steadily rolling along the floor. "The plane IS tilted." And with that, the elder Malenko took off towards the cockpit, the others decided to follow.

"Sorry sir, you can't be up here. The cockpit is up ahead so passengers may not enter." One of flight attendants ordered the elder Malenko.

"I know that." Antonio replied before shoving her aside gently to enter the cockpit, the other flight attendant joined her co-worker in confusion. They looked at him, then at each other, Marco approached, but when the attendants saw him, they were lost in their dreamy thoughts, "_Oh, he's so handsome._"

"Move it, bitch." He said rudely as he shoved the dames aside in an aggressive manner.

"_What a shock._" Thought the flight attendants before they're caught by Zoltán.

"Woah there, bocsánat hölgyeim… His disrespectful behavior towards you two is incorrigible. But we have an emergency on our hands. Please forgive him for me." Zoltán said as the attendants nodded in reply, the others looked on.

Elior was stunned, Star, Jackie and Higgs were surprised with the look of jealousy in their eyes and Loki was making a face that screams, "_How do they do that?!_" But the only word that whispered out of his mouth was, "What?!"

"DAMMIT! This is horrible! We've been had!" Antonio yelled, entering the cockpit to see three dead pilots with their severed tongues on the windshield.

"Their tongues have been ripped out. That rhino bastard, he killed the pilots before we knew he was here." Marco noted.

"We're losing altitude fast. The autopilot's been destroyed as well. Dammit, we're going to crash!" Antonio roared.

The sound of choked laughter cane from behind them, coming from the revived old man. "My Stand, the Tower card, will signify a horrible accident at the end of journey! I will keep you from Lord Hugo if it's the last thing I do! Even if you manage to survive the crash, you're still 10,000 kilometers from Egypt! Those who swore loyalty to Lord Hugo will pursue you relentlessly! You don't stand a chance in hell! There're all Stands in this world with powers that define the very limits of imagination, Lord Hugo's power is the one that rules over all of them, he is the master of Stands, reigning over the world like a god among mortals! There's no way you'll reach him alive! You bastards won't even see Egypt, your deaths will be swift and painful!" The creepy bastard choked out, collapsed to his actual death, with the flight attendants gasping in horror behind him.

"You're definitely professionals. Good thing you didn't scream, that annoys me all the freaking hell." Marco remarked. "Now, I've got a request: this heaps gonna hit water, and this old man's gonna land her there. Go put on life jackets on the other passengers, and make sure they're buckled up."

"Uh... Yes sir." One of the flight attendants said as they do as they're told. Antonio sat on one of the pilot seats while Loki sat on the other.

Marco then turned to a focused Antonio. "You got this?"

"Yeah... But let me remind you: this ain't my first rodeo with this plane." Tony responded, adjusting the plane's controls.

"Systems are set." Loki said.

Big Tony nodded as everyone manage to hold on, Antonio then said, "Alright… Everyone brace for impact. In 5... 4... 3... 2..."

_The plane landed 35 kilometers off the coast of Hong Kong. Marco and the others had no choice but to head to the city…_

_Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the new territories: with more than 235 individual islands in the area; its' breathtaking nightscape is known as "The Million-Dollar View"_

While Antonio called some contacts at the Donatello Foundation with Marco and Zoltán, the others waited across the street, in front of a small book store. "Hey, ladies!" Loki shouted. "Check this out, it's no wonder how Marco and Zoltán are famous around the world. Look: "The Holy Order reigns supreme." "The New Michael Myers." "The Lights in the Darkness." They're everywhere." He said, while picking up one of the magazines which featured Marco wearing a Michael Myers costume.

"Well that's something, it's no wonder why they became professional wrestlers." Jackie said, looking at a magazine featuring Marco, Zoltán, Clint, Daisuke, Mike, Reina and Sibella. She turned to the counter. "Excuse me... How much are these?" She asked the shopkeep.

"$2.00 each, ma'am." Responded the shopkeep as Jackie handed 12 dollars for 6 magazines. After buying them, Antonio called out. "HEY!"

"What? You think we have time to buy something?! Come on, we'll stop at my old favorite, we have plenty of time to eat." He said as he walked over to the group with the two young men.

"So old man… who did you just call?" Higgs asked.

"I'll explain once we get to the restaurant, be patient. We need to work out a plan that'll to get us to Egypt as safely and quickly as possible. More users are about to come after us and that could cost lives." Antonio responded.

"I agree with you. We can't allow any more civilians to be hurt because of our failure. The quickest way would be by plane… but that's out." Elior remarked.

"Indeed. It's now become completely impossible for us to fly to Egypt. You see, if we encounter a Stand user like the last one on a commercial flight... will cause a disaster, one that will harm many people and might kill many more. With that in mind, we'll have to get to Egypt by either land or sea." Tony stated.

"I hear you..." The fortune teller said. "But if we fail to find Hugo within 50 days…" He trailed off, as the others knew the implications of a failure in regards to Angie Malenko-Diaz's life.

"If we could've stayed on that plane, we'd probably be in Cairo and this will be over." Star remarked.

"I'm well aware of that." Tony said with a grin. "However... it's too soon to worry about it. Over 100 years ago, Jules Verne wrote _Around The World in 80 Days_. A story about a man who travels 40,000 kilometers in 11 weeks, with nothing but trains and steamboats. We may not have a plane, but we still have 50 days. We'll be able to travel 10,000 kilometers to Egypt, and as for the road we'll take. I say we'll go by sea, we'll charter a suitably sized boat, go around the Malay Peninsula, and cross the Indian Ocean, a 'Silk Road of the Sea' as it were." He finished.

"I believe that is best as well, crossing by land can be difficult and we have to cross the Himalayas or the desert. If we ran into trouble, we'll lose a lot of time. There are too many dangers." Elior said, sipping his tea.

"I've never been to any of those places using either route before, so I really don't know. I'll leave it up to the two of you." Loki said.

"Same with me." Marco replied.

"Then it's decided. Now, the greatest danger that we'll face, will be the Stand users that Hugo sends against us. We'll have to do our best to get to Egypt, without being spotted." Zoltán finished the conversation. Unaware to the Vampire Hunters, one man is seen behind them.

Zoltán went to pour more tea for himself, but noticed the pot to be empty, he placed the lid on the pot slightly crookedly. Marco noticed it and knew what it meant, the girls were puzzled. "You guys seem to be taking the customs very well." Jackie said to Marco and Zoltán.

"We've been here five times already. We both know how it works, we just have to learn the customs and more of them." Marco answered.

Zoltán, however, chuckled, "If any of you are interested, we'd be happy to be your guide. This is just to let them know if we want more tea. If you do this in Hong Kong, they'll usually bring in more within a few seconds." With that a waitress approached and pours tea on Zoltán's cup before pouring it on Marco's as well. "Also, any time a server pours some tea in your cup," Zoltán taps on the table twice with his finger, "tap the table, it's the way of saying thank you."

Before the conversation could proceed, an unfamiliar voice cut through. "_Ospravedlnte ma_, sorry to be a bother. I'm a tourist from Slovakia, could you help me out?" Asked the voice's owner, a tall, red-haired faux hawk man with a Slovak accent, he wore a light gray tank top, black slacks, brown boots, black wristbands and a brown belt, he's also light skinned and Caucasian with grass green eyes and stood 6'1" tall. "My Chinese is a bit rusty and I'm having a hard time with the characters on the menu. Could you help me decipher it?" He asked, closing the menu to reveal his face.

"You're annoying, go away." Marco said rudely, before Big Tony intervened.

"Come now Marco, it's fine, try to be nice to the man." Antonio said before turning to the Slovak as he hands over the menu.

"I've been to Hong Kong many times over the years. I can at least read the characters on the menu. Why don't you join us?" Continued the elder Malenko as he offered the young Slovak a seat. "So, what do you want to order? Dish with shrimp, duck, shark fin and mushrooms?" He called a nearby waiter and then ordered for everyone… which may have been a mistake, as shown by the array of bizarre dishes that arrived a few minutes later.

"These look like dishes with beef, fish, clams and frog." Elior pointed out.

"That looks... bizarre." Higgs said.

"I'm not one to judge about this." Star replied.

"Indeed… this is quite different from our order." Loki remarked.

"I knew this would happen, dammit." Marco said simply.

"Ohhh..." The Slovak looked impressed by the dishes.

Antonio then started laughing before saying, "Well it makes no difference. It's all on me, lads! Besides, it doesn't matter what you order. It's all delicious! Hahahahaha. Alright everyone, dig in." And with that, they dug in, Marco and Zoltán followed Tony first. The rest had no choice but to eat. Much to their surprise, everything was indeed delicious.

"Wow, this is..." Jackie began as she tried the clam. Others were mildly surprised by the taste.

"You see that, and you were worried!" Antonio stated, impressed by the positive reaction.

"Well…" The Slovak said. "They've certainly taken a lot of time to prepare this, it's almost artistic. Take these mangoes for example. Cut into a perfectly shaped holy cross." He continued, picking up a mango. "In fact… it reminds me of something…" At this, everyone at the table immediately stared at him. "I remember now… someone I know has a mark. A different cross-shaped birthmark on the back of their neck. Know anyone like that?" He asked, in a much more menacing tone, everyone looked at him suspiciously.

"Are you another... enemy?!" Loki asked in shock.

The Slovak simply smirked deviously, before biting the mango. Antonio's rice porridge suddenly began to bubble madly, before an ethereal sword held by a silver and clover green hand shot out, swinging at Tony.

The elder Malenko barely caught it with his artificial hand, "It's a Stand!"

At this, Marco flipped the table over at the Slovak, before Elior summoned his Stand.

"Golden Dragon, come forth!"

The gold, dragon-like Stand shot a stream of fire at the Slovak's silver knight, which spun its' sword around, capturing the flames.

"What the hell?! You were right, another Stand User." Elior said as he looked at the knight-like Stand before it shoot the fire at them at a nearby table, burning a flaming clock into its' surface.

"Wow, he had such speed with his sword!" Jackie remarked.

The knight did a pose, which had shown its appearance: It wore armor of a medieval knight, all silver with clover green trim, black chainmail underneath and gray eyes are exposed from the helmet's eye holes, and it's also holding a rapier.

"My Stand is the Guardian card and its name is Royal Guardian!" The Slovak responded, before turning his attention to the Israeli. "Elior Neumann... it seems that I will be disposing of you first. I carved a burning clock into that table? Before the clock strikes twelve… you will be a dead man."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N: Merry Christmas everyone, we finally get to meet the Slovak in this chapter, but keep in mind, he won't reveal his name until the next chapter. I'll try to work on the next chapter until New Years Eve if I can. But until then, have a Merry Christmas. Also, there are two pop culture references in this chapter: the 180 part on the plane is a reference to the Final Destination series and the Halloween part featuring Michael Myers was Marco's first wrestling gimmick when he debuted at 18 years old.**

**Translations:**

**Bocsánat Hölgyeim - Hungarian for Sorry ladies**

**Ospravedlnte ma - Slovak for Excuse me**


	7. Royal Guardian

_Hong Kong:_

Inside a restaurant in Hong Kong, the Hunters were in an intense stare-down with another one of Hugo's assassins; a Slovak gentleman with an incredibly fast swordsman Stand called Royal Guardian. Elior Neumann had brought out Golden Dragon to face him, and a nearby table burned with flames that formed a clock that the enemy Stand had carved using Elior's own flames.

"You know your way around your sword. I'll grant you that much." The fortune teller said. "But… it will take more than mere ego if you think I'll be defeated by the the time the flames reach twelve. Your pride may well be your undoing, Mister… Uh who?"

"Ospravedlnte ma, we haven't been introduced yet," the Slovak responded, "my name is Filip Bosko!"

"Well met, Bosko. It's good to know the name of one's opponent… HOWEVER!" Elior exclaimed, before gesturing towards the table. The flames spiraled away from the table, knocking it over, as they flew to form a burning aura behind the Israeli. "Back to the task at hand. If you are under the assumption that my flames only burn upward or with the wind, as they would in nature, then let me assure you, they do not. My Stand is named Golden Dragon, because it wields fire as though by magic."

"Fire is what life began itself in this world, I should have expected as much from a firey Stand such as Golden Dragon, who represents beginnings." The swordsman replied. "However, you dare speak of pride and ego…" As he said this, he held five coins up. "I assure you that my pride... is well-deserved!" And with that, Bosko threw the coins in the air as Royal Guardian thrust out its' sword, stabbing through all five coins in an instant, surprising the Hunters.

"In a fraction of a second that the coins lined up, he skewed all five of them in a single shot!" Antonio yelled.

"No… why don't you take a look at 'em again?" Marco said, pointing at the sword, and true to his word, there are flames engulfing the coins.

"It can't be!" Jackie exclaimed.

"There, stuck on the blade of his sword, he's cut a bit of flame for every coin that he hit!" Elior stated.

"Now you see that I'm every bit as deadly as I had said. This is not mere ego, my Stand has the unrestricted power to cut fire to ribbons as though it were nothing. It can slice through air, creating a vacuum and dispersing the fire, your flames are useless; face it, your Golden Dragon may be fearsome, but it's powerless against the likes of my Royal Guardian." Bosko explained with a triumphant flourish, dropping the coins as the Stand disappears.

The Hunters turn around to find Filip in the entrance, "How in God's name?" Elior questioned.

"Victory and conquest, that represents the card, the Guardian, it defines my Stand as well. I can beat you in this cramped little place as well as anywhere else. Not very sporting though, your flames will serve you a greater effect in a larger open space. beating you at the apex of your powers pán is the only victory of my Stand. Now all of you, follow me outside!" Bosko commanded as they follow him.

_Tiger Balm Garden (what's left of it), Hong Kong:_

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE?!" Higgs yelled in confusion, looking around the bizarrely decorated, but now demolished, garden.

"I believe it was the demolished Tiger Balm Garden, Higgs. What's left of it anyway." Loki said to the confused mewman knight.

"Wait, really?" Star questioned.

_Tiger Balm Garden: A fantastical hillside park, built among Hong Kong's famous Tai Hang Road. With its surreal landscape of sculptures and art styles, it was true Hong Kong artistry._

The Hunters followed the Slovak to an empty space of the demolished garden, "A prediction if I may indulge, _Pán Elior_, you will die here..." Bosko said. "Destroyed by the flames of your own Stand, Golden Dragon."

Marco grimaced. "Elior…"

The Israeli looked at the Mexican-American. "Marco, this is not your fight. In an open space like this one, there's nothing to keep my Stand from fighting at full force." Came the response, as he summoned Golden Dragon to fight.

After a brief and intense staredown, the fight began. "_En Garde!_" The Slovak shouted as his Stand began to stab at Elior's, but the dragon Stand was evading each thrust of the rapier. "Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come now, nothing at all? No sign of the flame you were crowing about before? Suit yourself! I shall press the attack!"

With that, Royal Guardian thrusts its rapier faster, "Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come onnnnn!" Elior finally counterattacked, his Stand shooting a series of fireballs at Bosko's, all of which were deflected into a nearby statue, destroying its' exterior.

As the statue's fragments fell, revealing a perfect likeness of Marco and six girls of his choosing, Antonio exclaimed in rage, "That goddamn bastard; he's just toying with us! He used Golden Dragon's own fireballs to make a statue of Marco and his own Harem!" After the old man finished, Jackie, Star and Higgs blushed deeply at the sight of themselves in the statue with Marco.

At this, the Slovak chuckled. "Look at that. In a place this odd, I dare say young Michelangelo's fiendish face is right at home."

While he gloated, Elior closed his eyes and concentrated, his Stand drawing in embers from the air.

Bosko raised an eyebrow, "Well, here it comes. Show me your true power at last, Elior, but know that it will never be enough."

Big Tony's eyes widened, "Hey, hide behind something already! Elior's gonna blow his top!" He shouted and went off to hide as the teens looked confused.

"What are you talking about?" Marco asked.

"**CROSSFIRE HURRICANE!**" The fortune teller shouted, as several Star-of-David-shaped fireballs launched themselves at the Slovak and his Stand.

"Really? Is that the best that you've got?! I told you before what my sword does; it creates a gap between the pockets of air, so I can slice your flames!" Bosko responds, before Royal Guardian slices the flames in half, redirecting them back at both Avdol and Golden Dragon.

The Hunters watched in horror as their fortune teller and his Stand are burning alive, Golden Dragon lets out a painful roar as Elior screamed in agony.

"Elior, NO!" Antonio shouted. "The fire is so intense, it's burning Stand and user alike!"

And with that, Elior fell to the ground, defeated.

Bosko smirked, then laughed aloud. "It's just as I had foretold. You will die from an inferno of your own making." At this, Elior lifted his head one more time, then sent his Stand flying at Filip. "Good grief, just die already. One last pathetic gab? This hard to watch!" And with that, Royal Guardian sliced Golden Dragon in half, but noticed that something wasn't right.

"That hit felt wrong, what is this?!" The redhead Slovak asked. The flames then engulfed his Stand, much to his shock, which sets his Stand on fire and steam comes out of him. "What?! Impossible, how can his Stand injure me after the moment of its own destruction?!"

Then the Stand shattered itself, it was actually the statue he carved earlier, "It's not the Stand, you bastard, it's the dummy!" Tony yelled as Avdol rose to his feet.

"The flames blinded your eyes. What you really destroyed was the statue that Royal Guardiancarved earlier." Elior said, much to Filip's surprise.

"Perhaps you didn't take me at my word when I told you that I could control my flames freely. When you deflected it, I used it to melt and mold the statue's appearance and joints, and allow it to move." Elior sated, rolling his shoulders back. "The one defeated by his own Stand's powers is you, Bosko! Now… let's try this again! **CROSSFIRE HURRICANE!**" Bosko screamed in pain from the attack as Elior smirked in victory. "Challenging a fortune teller in a battle of predictions is a bold move. Give it another decade and you would have been a viable opponent." Bosko then fell back, unconscious in defeat.

"Such terrifying power. His Stand must've melted in the face of such an attack. It's done for!" Antonio stated as he and the teens came out of their hiding spots.

"That's one hell of a burn. I'm betting he's dead, but wishes he was... Yeah... he's not getting up from that." Marco remarked, walking away.

"If he is alive, he'll be flat on his back for months. Having your Stand destroyed is a major trauma." Loki said, also turning to leave as Elior returned to the group, saying "Now then, Mr. Malenko... let us resume our trek to Egypt."

_"Wait... something's not right." _Zoltán thought when he looked at the fallen Slovak.

However, as they turned to leave, Royal Guardian's armor exploded at the sound of metal bursting which got the attention of the Vampire Hunters, and Bosko himself was shot high into the air like a rocket, still flat on his back.

"What the hell is going on? His Stand just exploded into a bunch of pieces!" Antonio exclaimed.

"How is he still lying down, but suspended in mid-air?" Star asked.

"Don't look at me, I'm just as surprised as you are." Higgs replied.

Bosko then opened his eyes and applauded. "BRAVO! Well done, _Pán_! Bravo!" He continued while floating through the air.

"That's Impossible!" Tony exclaimed.

"I can't believe it...!" Elior said, surprised by the Slovak's action.

"He doesn't look injured at all." Jackie replied.

Yeah, but... why the hell's he floating in the air?" Marco asked, a bit mildly surprised.

Filip chuckled. "Look with your inner-eye and see the truth."

Royal Guardian shimmered into view, holding its master over its head.

"How can it be?" Elior gasped.

Bosko then completed a perfect somersault, flipping in midair and landing on both feet. "Behold my friends. He may have shed his armor, but it's still my Royal Guardian!" He exclaimed, standing to a much slimmer, slightly less armored Royal Guardian. "You seem quite taken aback by this. I really should explain before I destroy you. Otherwise it wouldn't be chivalrous, don't you agree? I'm sure you were expecting nothing less. If you don't mind, may we take a short timeout for an explanation?"

"_Nagyon jól_. Let's hear this explanation." Zoltán responded, stepping in for Elior.

"First, the explosion you saw was not my Stand self-destructing. What Elior took is Royal Guardian's body was armor. Armor that was cast off. But before it did, it absorbed the brunt of Elior's flames. That's how I escaped further harm! And bereft of armor, it has significantly more agility!" Bosko explained to the challenging Hungarian. "Were you able to see my Stand as it held me up? That's right! Royal Guardian can now move faster than before!"

"Fascinating... You're suggesting it stood there and took Golden Dragon's **Crossfire Hurricane **head-on because the armor didn't allow it to dodge, is that it?" Zoltán said, taking off his coat as he takes his fighting stance. "But, bereft of armor, it is also far more vulnerable! It may have survived Elior's attack once before, but if it were hit again, its destruction would be absolute!"

"That may be... _Áno_! How can one know? Such a shame we'll never find out!"

"Never, huh? Let's see if you can keep up with me." Zoltán responded.

"First, let me show you all something that will really freak you out!" Bosko said.

"Go ahead. I'm interested." The Hungarian challenged. An instant later, Royal Guardian had split into multiple duplicates of itself, still behind its user.

This did freak the Hunters out. "What in God's name?! He has six- no, no wait! He has a total of seven Stands now!" Jackie shouted in shock.

"That's impossible! There should only be one Stand per user!" Loki exclaimed in response.

"Tell me, are you freaked out yet? These are afterimages!" Bosko stated with a sly grin. "Perfect mirrors of my Royal Guardian, guaranteed to fool your senses! Your sight, your hearing, your senses can't follow their movement! How do you like MY SWORDSMANSHIP NOW, PÁN?!"

At this, the afterimages of Royal Guardian began to attack Zoltán as he summoned Wolf Sultan to block and counter the attacks.

"Suffer my **Superman Punch!**" Zoltán said as Wolf Sultan countered an attack and successfully punched one of the duplicates, and continued to block and dodge the Slovak's offensive.

The Wolf Stand then attempted to strike the clones, but each one would disappear before either Stand can strike or counter. With some successful hits on each other, the Stands held their ground.

"I told you that efforts to track it would be in vain, did I not? You waste your successful strikes on images and spare the real threat!" Bosko snickered as the gentleman wrestler's concentrated attacks of his Stand continued striking the afterimages.

"Striking at random? Desperation is not a very good look on you, Zoltán Farkas!" Bosko stated.

"He's going to exhaust himself at this rate." Jackie noted.

"Don't be so sure. He knows what he's doing." Marco countered as Royal Guardian and Wolf Sultan continued to dodge and counter strike everything they threw at each other.

"AARGH! **Roundhouse Fire!**" Zoltán roared, throwing a spinning roundhouse kick as the leg was set on fire for an effective hit, but it missed.

"_Nie, nie, nie, nie!_ Have you learned nothing at all today? You're a fool... Whose attacks will not work on my Stand!" Bosko chided. "Now give up! Come on! Come on! Come on!" With that, the knight-like Stand shot forward, it and its' afterimages carving the Hungarian coat of arms into Zoltán's forearms.

"Zoltán!" Star yelled out, but Zoltán recovered as he skidded backwards from the attack.

"What precision, What lethal efficiency! It's plain to see. His Stand's ability has been trained, and at great length!" The ponytailed gentleman groaned, impressed by the experience.

"Hmm. I've spent the last decade honing my skill." Bosko stated. "You had better hit me with everything you've got, for I intend my next attack could be the _coup de grace_!"

Zoltán took a firm and calm stance. "It's quite chivalrous of you to keep giving us a fair warning about your next move. Your honor is unimpeachable. You've inspired me. Thus, I too will give you a fair warning for my next attack."

"Really?" The swordsman said with a smirk.

"I have a variety of techniques I mastered, and one of them can show judgment, choosing if you want to live or die." Zoltán explained, "**Full Moon Blitz:** It's a lightning fast technique… but it's not about strength or speed, it's about testing one's endurance. But to those who follow the path of evil without mind control, will suffer a fatality far rare than fate!" As he explained, Wolf Sultan begins charging up in a fighting stance.

"You'll just have to wait and see! **Bare Knuckle Melee!** Try to dodge all these fists!" Zoltán challenged as Wolf Sultan rushed forward with a barrage of fists.

"You're a fool, Zoltán, it's useless!" Bosko shouted, his Stand gathered to form a circle to protect its master.

"Damn! They've got him covered!" Antonio stated as he saw the circle.

"He's thought of everything!" Elior replied.

"Marco, it might be a good time to fall back." Loki said to the crimson Malenko.

"Don't worry, he's got this. This might be his best strategy, he just needed some more time to land the attack." Marco said, confident about his friend's way of fighting.

"Naive, naive, naive! So very naive!" Bosko said as the afterimages of Royal Guardian began to rush in. "I will counter your slugger strikes precisely as an experienced fighter! SLICE THEM! AND LEAVE HIM ARMLESS!" As a result, Wolf Sultan vanishes into thin air before reappearing in Bosko's face and lands a jab in the kidney, "WHAT?!"

"NOW… **FULL MOON BLITZ!**" Zoltán shouted as his Stand sends Bosko flying through the air and Wolf Sultan launches a barrage of fists on the flying Slovak's minimal pressure points. One final punch to the chest later and Bosko crashed landed, fully injured but still breathing, near Zoltán's feet.

"That's incredible! Never before have I seen such precise movements with ninja-like speed!" Elior commented.

"Now I get it! It's clear to me! The **Bare Knuckle Melee **was a distraction and nothing more. Then he used an opening to strategize a perfect way to land the real target with the **Full Moon Blitz**." Antonio solved the game plan as Zoltán puts his coat back on before he and Elior walked towards the fallen Slovak.

"Like I said, I come up with ways to land the **Full Moon Blitz** and finish the job." The Hungarian said before the fortune teller tossed a dagger at Bosko.

"Succumbing to your wounds is a painful way to meet one's end. Take the dagger and end it while you can." Elior said, before walking back towards the Hunters with Zoltán.

Bosko grabbed the dagger to throw it, before changing his mind and placing it back on the ground. He closed his eyes and lay his head on the ground. "My conceit was my undoing. I couldn't picture their flames or fists to stand a chance against my sword work. A slow death admit my wounds is no less than a deserve, páns. I challenged you, Elior, to this duel then you Zoltán decided to step in for him in round two, and both of you are the clear victors. I will not finish it with suicide... it would be cowardly... to end it myself."

Zoltán gave a smirk and snapped his finger, resulting in Bosko passing out; earning a respectful smile from Marco. "Even in your final moments, you conduct yourself to chivalry. I'll let you live for the time being, until then, try to rest, you have my respect." Zoltán said, as he knelt down.

"Even while working for a devil like Hugo, he carried himself with honor. His death would be a waste." Elior said while Zoltán lifted the Slovak's head.

"And just in time as well." The Hungarian said as he parted Bosko's hair, revealing a flesh bud and summoned his Stand.

"Those tentacles are so gross." Star reacted with disgust to the removal of the flesh bud. "Just destroy it already, I don't want to see it again."

"Quit your bitching, Star!" Marco said as Zoltán dissolves the flesh bud to the sun.

Antonio then knelt next to Bosko and quipped, "There, now that you're free of the flesh bud, we can all be bud-dies. You get it?" He then laughed at his pun.

Marco just sighed. "Hey Zoltán, don't people who make stupid puns get on your nerves or is it just me?"

The European simply smirked. "Depends if we needed some comic relief."

"We should just go already. I don't want to see that statue ever again." Higgs reminded as she blushed and twitched at the statement she made, which also caused Star and Jackie to blush.

_The next day, Hong Kong:_

"The Donatello Foundation chartered a boat for us yesterday. With any luck, it's reached the harbor ahead of us." Antonio said as the Vampire Hunters walked down a path to the harbor. All of them stopped, however, when a familiar tall, redheaded Slovak stepped in front of them.

"We meet again… So what's on your mind, Bosko?" Elior asked.

"I never thanked you properly for freeing me from Hugo's mind control." The Slovak answered.

"Young Zoltán is the one you should be thanking here." Elior responded, to which Marco merely said, "Don't need your thanks."

"Excuse my friend, he doesn't take trust a bit kindly to strangers. It appears your fine manners are wasted on the likes of us." Zoltán said as Bosko winced slightly.

"As you wish. I have no desire to come off as heavy handed." Bosko said, "But I'm not quite finished here. _Pán Malenko_, I hope you'll indulge by asking a very bizarre question."

"A bizarre question you say?" Antonio asked quizzically.

"I noticed at the restaurant, yesterday, you never took off your gloves, even while eating. Tell me… your left hand wouldn't happen to be a right hand under that glove?" Bosko questioned.

"Huh? Is my left hand the right one? You weren't kidding about the bizarre part. What are you hoping to find out through all this?" Antonio asked.

"I'm looking for the man who murdered my younger sister." Bosko answered, much to the Hunters' shock and surprise. "I don't know his face, but he definitely has two right hands instead of one of each."

The Hunters stood there and thought about it as Tony removed the glove from his left hand, revealing a metal prosthetic. "Here, I lost the real thing in a horrible battle 50 years ago."

Bosko simply lowered his gaze when he looked at the artificial hand. "I apologize for the rudeness, please forgive me."

Antonio nodded, before continuing, "It's not painful to talk about, I'd like to know what happened." The Italian giant asked.

Bosko simply turned towards the sea and closed his eyes, a flashback begins, telling everything about what happened. "It's been three years now… my younger sister and a classmate of hers were walking home from school in the rain back in our native Slovakia. It was a country road, much like any other. On the side of the road, a man stood with his back to them. Oddly enough, the mysterious stranger was dry, the rain stood still around him, as though an invisible shell guarded him."

"Suddenly, her friend fell to the ground in a fountain of blood as though her chest was cut by the wind. My sister was alone, he stole her innocence and then he killed her, that was all the man wanted, for that she died. Her friend escaped with her life to tell me what she saw that fateful day. She didn't get the look of their tormentor's face, but saw that both of his hands were right hands." The flashback ends, fading back to the harbor in the present.

"No believed the poor girl's testimony about the man, no one but me, that is. I had already been keeping my own strange powers a secret by then, and he sounded like a fellow Stand user." Bosko finished.

"He's a Stand user alright, I'm sure of it." Antonio answered the Slovak's riddle of the murderer.

"I swore an oath! I promised my sister's soul that I will avenge her! To hunt down the killer and make him pay with his life! I will use my Stand as a tool of righteous vengeance!" Bosko promised before he went on.

"Then, a year ago, my travels led me to Hugo." Another flashback emerges, showing Hugo summoning a vision in a crystal ball with dark magic.

"Huh?" Bosko gasped when he entered a dark chamber, Hugo then sought the vision in the crystal ball, showing the silhouette of his sister's assassin, he gasped again, "That man... The reflection shows..."

"It's a vision from your heart, not mine. The man you seek, the pain you hide, my power only makes it visible. How about it, Bosko? Care to become friends?" Hugo offered as Bosko stood there, terrified. Hugo continued, "Tragedy nulls a way at your soul. I need no glass to see that. Work with me and your suffering will soon be nothing more than a thing of the past. The image in the globe is what pains you, is it not? What if I could help you? I, too, am plagued with misfortune, I have been denied the sun's embrace forevermore. Be an agent of my will out in the sunlight and I will find this man who haunts your soul." He brings out his flesh buds form his hair and attacks Bosko, who screams in fear.

"After that, I was commanded to kill all eight of you. Never once did I question the orders." Back to the present, the Slovak finished telling his story.

"Even if he hadn't used a flesh bud, Hugo was quite the master at manipulating human beings to carry out his bidding." Elior remarked.

"Truly. And if Hugo has found your sister's killer, we might safely assume he's enlisted the villain in whatever dark plans he's got afoot." Loki continued.

"If that is true, I must join your trek to Egypt! By going after Hugo, I will find the one who took my sister's life." Bosko declared.

"What do we do?" Loki asked.

"I have no objections to him coming." Elior stated.

"I'd say let him join us, what choice do we have." Jackie responded.

"I agree with his story, we might have more back up." Star said.

"Like I got nothing else to say anyway." Higgs replied.

Marco simply tipped his hat and smiled slightly, Zoltán nodded in response with an accepting smirk.

"Even if we tell him though, I'm sure he'll just follow along." Tony quipped.

**Filip Bosko - Stand Name: Royal Guardian, abilities: Fast and Precise Swordsmanship.**

"The honor is all mine." The newly recruited Slovak said.

"_Buon dolore._" Marco said, until...

"Excuse me, sir." A voice called out, two young women approached the Mexican athlete with a Nikon camera.

"I'm sorry, but is it okay if we can take a picture with you maybe?" One of the girls asked.

"_He's so hot! What a good excuse to talk to him!_" The girl thought out loud like she and her friend are attracted to Marco.

"Please, will you do it?" The second girl begged.

"Oh, oh, take it with the ocean behind us." The first girl requested.

Marco got annoyed and yelled, "SHUT UP ALREADY! GO BUG SOMEONE ELSE!"

"Easy, _môj priateľ_." Bosko intervened, "Ladies, I would love to take your photographs. Come along, there. You have very nice legs… I'll be sure to get them in the shots." Bosko offered politely as Marco watches on in envy and shadows in his eyes, "_Áno_! Perfection! And another one for safe keep…_ Veľmi Dobre_! If only I could use this camera to capture your hearts instead of just your picture, slečna!" The others stood, perplexed by the change in his behavior.

"This doesn't feel like the Bosko from a moment ago." Elior commented.

"It's like his emotions changed on a dime." Loki replied.

"More like, he's got two brains, and the one down stairs suddenly started calling the shots." Antonio responded.

"I was thinking of saying the exact same thing." Jackie said.

"Remind me not to get anything involved with him." Higgs said.

"_Buon dolore..._" Marco remarked one more time.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N: Happy New Year readers, we now finally introduced the Jean Pierre Polnareff to the group, Filip Bosko, and he has joined the Vampire Hunters for the journey to Egypt. Also, I decided to give Zoltán a chance to fight after Elior won the first round of the duel since he needed a chance to prove himself. And instead of Golden Dragon in the statue, I put Marco with Star, Jackie, Janna, Higgs, Felicia/Hekapoo and a sixth girl which I have to leave it as a surprise. I read stories about Marco dating a number of girls at the same time, their good to be honest, and I thought I'd do the same. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a fun New Year's Day. Like I said, Star vs The Forces of Evil and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure belong to their respective owners. Plus, we know that Stardust Crusaders took place in the late 80s, the Tiger Balm Garden in Hong Kong, as of now, is demolished for redevelopment in 2004, just to give you a detail of what happened to it, I don't know what happened next ever since.**

**Translation:**

**Pán - Slovak for Mister**

**Nagyon jól - Hungarian for Very well**

**Áno - Slovak for yes**

**Nie - Slovak for no**

**Môj priatel' - Slovak for my friend**

**Vel'mi Dobre - Slovak for Very well/Tres Bien**

**Slečna - Slovak for ladies**

**Buon dolore - Italian for Good grief (aka Yare Yare Daze, Jotaro's famous quote)**


	8. Dark Blue Moon

**Flashback: March of 2007**

Multiple people gathered at the gym hall for the talent show in Echo Creek. 5 kids already did theirs, including Jackie, who passed with flying colors, and Janna, despite embarrassing herself.

It was now Marco's turn, he's showcasing his poetry for one chance, he may not be Shakespeare, but it was his first shot at it.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, reciting a poem of his own, Marco Diaz!" The announcer said as Marco took the stage, there was a minimum amount of applause, but he didn't mind.

"Hi everyone... I'm here to tell a poem. Rest assured, this is my first time with this so... I'll try to do my best." Marco said as he took a piece of paper and began:

"Carry me under, leave me abandoned."

"Beautiful anger, breaking the pattern."

"Empty and perfect, shattered and worthless."

"Dragging me further, forget to remember."

"Show me what's left."

"Sober and silent, faded and violent."

"Never surrender, out of the embers."

"And after this world is out of reach."

"Hopeless, I fight to fall between."

"So save a space inside for me."

"Take the color from your eyes."

"Bring the broken back to life."

"I bleed for you, we'll make it through."

"Time will not take the life from me."

"Never Again..."

Marco finished as the audience sat there in silence. At first, they thought he was going on a phase or that he was pretending to be emo. But then a slow clap was heard, it was Jackie, applauding to Marco, and everyone joined along.

"Wow, talk about making a scene. Marco Diaz ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer said as Marco went backstage, he stayed in the shadows despite his shyness. But he knew better, Marco felt that he was in his own world, or to his own doom, but he felt like something's about to happen in the future.

**Present Day: Late August of 2019**

_The loathsome curse of Hugo... Even the Donatello Foundation's best doctors, equipped with the latest medical technologies, just stood powerless before Hugo's curse. But, in order to save Angie and Mariposa, Marco and the rest of the Vampire Hunters head towards the distant land of Egypt. In order to avoid danger, the group is traveling by sea rather than air, and are now heading towards Singapore, unharmed._

_Aboard a boat, in the South China Sea:_

"To get from Hong Kong to Singapore, we'll be on the water by boat for three days." Antonio Malenko said as he continued, "Well, let's just relax and keep our spirits up, just for the best. But seriously, guys…" says Big Tony as he stands in front of the noonday sun. "Do you really have to exercise right now?! Or aren't you boys crazy enough for some yoga instead? You might attract some girls attention and it'll slow us down?!" He grumbled at Zoltán and Marco, both of whom were working out on the deck in their swim trunks Marco was doing sit-ups on the ledge while Zoltán does pull-ups, also on the ledge.

"Well… we are both professional wrestlers, and a well trained athlete must workout to the core regardless of the circumstances, Sibella knew that we have to focus on multiple threats outside of the ring." Zoltán stated as he continued with his pull-ups.

"Wow! Never knew what had it in her." Antonio wondered aloud about his godmother.

"Are you sure about that?" Loki asked the Italian giant before pointing at the three girls in swimsuits that accompanied this journey, reading the magazines that Jackie bought from Hong Kong.

"No way are they that strong." Star pointed out, looking at one page in the magazine.

"They may be, but they sure have a lot of effort in their experience." Jackie said as she looked at the page, featuring Marco in a badass wrestling attire with the words "Warrior Inside" behind him.

"Despite how much we hate each other, don't even get me started on the nerd. He may look hot, but I'm not falling for him." Higgs said, remembering her rivalry with Marco.

"Aw, come on, Higgs. This is Marco we're talking about, who else might fall for him?" Star replied.

"So this is what they call _bushido_... Like they say, clear mind in even the flames feel cool." Elior said, stepping onto the deck and looked at the girls.

"That's all well and good, but that really won't get these boys any girls." Bosko said, pointing at the Mexican/Hungarian combo, before a voice cut him off.

"Let go, let go of me!" A high-pitched voice shouted. The Hunters turned to find that one of the sailors had a young boy in his grasp, "Dammit, I said get off of me, let me go! What's your problem?!"

"Shut your trap, ya brat!" The crewman snapped in response.

Antonio stepped forward in confusion, "Hey, who's that?! I thought we agreed that there'd be no other passengers on board but us!"

"Sorry, sir." The sailor said, "It's a stowaway. This little brat was hiding in one of the storage holds below."

"Stowaway?" Tony questioned.

"Whatcha waiting for?! Come at me! I'll freakin' break your balls!" The child said, before the sailor cut him off.

"Tell that to the police, you little shit, I dare you!"

Immediately, the boy stiffened at the mention of the police, "What? The police? Wait, I'm sorry, alright! Please just let me go; I just wanted to go to Singapore to see my dad, that's all! I'll do anything, you can even put me to work for my ticket!"

"Lets see, what should I do?" The sailor said, pinching the kid's cheek, "Should I let you go, or turn you in? What to do, what to do? We could use another cabin boy." He trailed off, before flicking the kid's nose, "No way I'm letting you go, that's too easy." As the boy began to cry, the sailor continued, "But first, I'm gonna let the captain know…" but was cut off when the child lunged and bit his arm, before rushing past him and diving into the ocean.

"Whoa, and he goes! That kid's got guts!" Bosko exclaimed, Zoltán stopped his workout to see the kid swim as Marco continued, nonstop.

Jackie looked worried, before turning to Higgs, "Is he really planning to swim to shore from out here?"

"What should we do?" Big Tony asked.

Higgs simply scoffed as she stretches her arms and shoulders behind her head. "Just leave him. He wouldn't have dived in if he wasn't a good swimmer." The kid began swimming away, but unknown to him, something's about to get him from the water.

"No! He's in danger!" The sailor cried, "This entire area is infested with sharks!" Sure enough, a shark's silhouette appeared beneath the boy, much to the Hunters horror. "This isn't good!" Loki exclaimed as the shark surfaced.

"Hey kid, come back, it's dangerous! You'll die!" Antonio called out.

"Listen to us, there's sharks out there!" Star yelled out as the shark exposed its fin and rushes forward before the boy turned around, his eyes widening with fear. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, closing his eyes and fearing the worst.

The shark gets close to eat its prey, until it was launched into the air, spouting blood. "**ORA ORA ORA!**" Crimson Tiger roared, its' fists pummeling the shark before finishing off with a **Spinning Piledriver**.

Jackie and Star sighed in relief, while the speechless child was grabbed by a hat wearing, shirtless Marco and they stared at each other for a second, "Buon dolore, come on you brat." He said, turning to go back to the boat, before glancing at the child in confusion.

"Hm?" He muttered as he placed a hand over the kid's chest, much to the child's embarrassment. "Wait a minute..." He ripped the child's hat off, to reveal long, flowing black with lavender dyed hair, "A girl? And a runty one at that, just my luck..." He grumbled.

The indignant girl growled at him, "Hey! How dare you feel me up like that, you bastard?! Hands off!" She attempted to smack the Mexican Muscle Bomber, but he blocked her attempted attack, much to her dismay.

"Buon dolore, kid..." Marco sighed, before turning to swim back to the boat with the girl. Behind them, the shark that was beaten to death was dragged underwater again, before resurfacing as a bloody carcass cut in half. Two unnatural-looking blue fins swam between the shark's halves, the silhouette of an unknown creature with four glowing eyes following behind them. Antonio noticed this, and began to panic.

"Hey Marco! Below you! Something's coming after you from underwater! It's not a shark, and it's racing towards you! You have to get out of there now! Hurry, swim to the boat!" Despite Marco's best efforts to reach the life preserver tossed to him, the sea creature was coming in too fast to dodge.

"He's too far away!" Star exclaimed as the sea creature gets closer.

"Wait... Elior, you said that my Stand is capable of manipulating and controlling water, even while fighting without it, right?" Jackie asked the fortune teller.

"Yes, it's capabilities are still in question if you want to test." Elior answered.

"Then let's test that theory, Azure Mermaid!" Jackie said, summoning her bright blue mermaid Stand, the mermaid dove into the water and jumped out, which then used it to hoist Marco and the girl out with a water like rope. A second later, a single huge hand came crashing down on the life preserver, tearing it apart before disappearing after an unsuccessful attempt to attack Marco.

"It just disappeared! That thing is a Stand!" Bosko shouted.

"Stunning, an aquatic Stand? In all my dealings with the occult, I've never heard of such a thing, until seeing Jackie's Stand, it has proven the fascinating fact." Elior responded. While the girl lay coughing on the deck, the Stand-using Hunters used their Stands to telepathically communicate.

Antonio: "_This girl… there's no way she's the-!_"

Bosko: "_Could she BE that Stand's user?_"

Loki: "_Did she try to lead Marco into shark-infested waters on purpose?_"

The girl, clearly irritated with the nine passengers staring at her, pulled out a knife. "Jeez, what's with you jerks?! Stop staring at me like that, it's creepy! I have no idea what's going on here, but I'll fight you! Don't underestimate me, okay? You're gonna regret this. One on one, come at me, I dare you, you punks!"

"_Is she playing us? Maybe we should toss her back into the ocean._" Bosko thought.

Loki shot him a withering glance, "_Calm down. If she is just a stowaway and gets eaten by sharks, it'll be bad._"

"_We've already checked the 10 people on this boat. I'm positive that they're all in the clear. I don't know who it could be, other than this girl. Isn't there a way to find out who she really is?_" Came Antonio's reply as anyone tries to come up with theories to test on the girl.

"Hey, how is Hugo doing these days?" Elior asked.

"Hugo, huh? What the hell is that?!" The girl asked, now visibly confused.

"Don't pretend like you don't know, you little brat!" Bosko yelled.

"Hey, I warned you punks! You gonna be a man and talk to me, or you just wanna get shanked, which is it, huh?! My demon blade wants the blood of its 340th victim… and you all look like prime cuts!" The girl threatened, until Loki snorted at this, while also holding back his laugh, much to the girl's irritation. "What's so funny, stupid jerk hole?!"

"Jerk hole? I'm starting to get the feeling that she's not our Stand user." Loki said to the Italian giant beside him.

"Yes… but who then?" Tony asked.

Just then, a booming voice rolled across the deck, "This girl our stowaway? Thanks for grabbing her for me." The tall (around 6'6"), muscular man said, putting his hands roughly on the girl's shoulders as she screamed in fear.

"Whoa captain…" Antonio said. Marco simply lit a cigarette and turned away, smoking, not bothering to get involved.

"I'm pretty strict, when it comes to stowaways on my ship here. You may be a girl, but if I go easy on you, we'll just get more and more stowaways." The captain explained, much to the girl's horror as she dropped the pocket knife, "I think we'll lock you up in the brig below deck until we make it to port."

"Hey captain, I'd like to ask you something… You verified the identities of all ten men on board, haven't you?" Antonio asked.

"Of course, they're all veterans. Each one of them on this ship for over ten years, I vouched for every single man. I'm not sure why you're so worried about that, since I gave you my word from the very beginning. Oh, by the way…" The captain said, before yanking the cigarette from Marco's mouth. "I must request that you don't smoke on deck. What were you planning to do with the ash and butt after you were done; were you just going to toss them into these pristine waters? You may be a guest on this ship, but you'll play by my rules… you got that?" The captain said, before extinguishing the cigarette on Marco's hat. The boy stood still in a calm and stoic manner and said nothing, but his eyes were full of a righteous fury, accompanied by a tiger's growl. The others watched this confrontation as the captain put the cigarette at the pockets of Marco's trunks, "You got it, kid?" The captain turned around and walked away.

"Hold it, pops." Marco said, as the captain stopped, "If you don't want me to smoke aboard ship, then just tell me. Don't be a condescending prick about the whole thing, you jackass." Everyone gasped at Marco's strong language, even the sailors.

"Hey Marco, don't be disrespectful to the captain like that. You're the one at fault." Antonio said, scolding his grandson.

Marco just scoffed, "His rules don't mean shit to me. I'll be as rude as I want, do you know why? The captain's the Stand user." He said, much to everyone's shock.

The captain stared in confusion. "…A Stand... user? I'm not sure I follow you, what is that?" He asked.

"That is completely impossible, Marco. We chose Captain Tennille because he came recommended with verification by the Donatello Foundation. He's someone that we can trust; there's no way that he's a Stand user!" Elior snapped.

"Hold on, what's this thing, a Stand? I have no idea what you guys are talking about." The captain said, confused.

"Marco, random guesses will only make things more confusing!" Loki said.

"Do you have any real proof, Marco?" Jackie asked.

"I found a way to differentiate Stand users from others. The trick is, to watch a possible Stand user around a cigarette smoke with a single whiff, gets a vein pop up on their nose." Marco said, pointing at his nose.

"WHA-?" Everyone asked, as all of them except the sailors, Star, Higgs and the girl touched their noses. "_What the hell are they all doing?_" The girl wondered.

"You're not serious, Marco!" Bosko shouted.

"Relax, I'm lying… and pretty effective too, 'cause it looks like we found the idiot, didn't we?" Marco responded, before pointing at the captain, who reacted with shock, the others had a surprised reaction from it, the little girl just stood there, looking at everyone in confusion.

The fake Captain removed his hat slowly, as he began to give off a sinister vibe. "Quite impressive, but what ticked you off that it was the Captain?" Antonio asked.

"Actually, I really didn't have a clue. However, I planned to try this with the entire crew for the moment we arrived. Simple as that." Marco answered with insane cleverness.

"And I fell for it; didn't expect this, but damn you're good." The fake Captain said before moving on, "You're right, I'm not the captain. The real Captain Tennille is already sleeping with the fishes at the bottom of the China Sea."

Marco then pointed at the fake Captain after the revelation, "If that's true, then you can sleep in the depths of hell, you bastard!" The captain merely chuckled at the threat, before a blue hand grabbed the stranger girl's leg, making her scream, getting the Hunters' attention.

"DAMMIT, NO!" The Hunters screamed. The girl was now held captive by a blue aquatic humanoid almost six and a half feet in height, which towered over the deck of the ship. "_Trouble in the water, lies in betrayal. The Moon card represents the fear of the unknown. It's name: __**Dark Blue Moon**__._"

"I had kept my identity hidden, hoping to pick you off one by one, five on one is so troublesome, even for me. The other way would've been much simpler. But since you figured me out, I have no choice, five on one it is! Getting my hands on her guess shows that lady luck is on my side. I think I'll take a dip in these shark-infested waters with the runt. If you wanna save her, you're gonna have to dive in after us. In the ocean, I have the advantage, I can take all five of you, hahahaha." The fake captain laughed, boasting about his type of advantage.

"Go on, act tough while you hide behind a hostage. It'll take a lot more than that to take me out, dumbass." Marco said.

"It's no act. This is a prediction. I've heard that your Stand, Crimson Tiger is fast, I'd like to put that to the test. I'm not trying to brag, but my Dark Blue Moon is King of the Water. It's much swifter than any fish in the sea, and certainly faster than any vulgar meat head like you." The captain declared, before climbing onto the railing, ready to jump in, "What if we test them out right now? Come on, follow me if you're not afraid of a... little salt water!" Then he, along with Dark Blue Moon, who's still holding the little girl, jumped off the ship.

Before Marco could summon his Stand after the threat, Jackie had already summoned Azure Mermaid, and the light blue Stand was punching the fake captain repeatedly. "**ATA! ATATATATATATATATATATATAATATA! ATA!**" The blows forced the captain's Stand to release the girl, while he flew off the boat.

"Ah, impossible, this girl attacked me faster than we could fall. That's impossible for a human, how did she...?" The fraud captain said as he floated away.

"You're the only one swallowed in salt water today, creep. Choke on it, tell him Elior." Jackie said with her thumbs down.

"Your folly was trying to out predict a fortune teller, tough break!" The Israeli said, while Bosko smirked, "Well said, Elior!"

As the body of the false captain drifted, Bosko snarkily commented, "There he goes, he talked of his Stand's power so much, I expected more, but in the end, he's a blabbering idiot." However, Jackie's arm stretched down the side of the boat as she attempted to pull the girl back up, sweat beginning to drip off her forehead.

"What's the matter, Jackie? Hurry and pull the girl back in, would ya?" The Italian giant said. Star noticed that Jackie was gritting her teeth as she struggled to pull the stranger girl back on the ship.

"What's wrong Jackie, you need a hand with her?" Star said as some mysterious barnacles began spreading on Azure Mermaid, Jackie cursed, "Dammit… I'm being pulled in!"

As blood spouted from her hands, the Hunters looked at the mysterious attack in horror. "Those are-" Elior asked. "I'm covered in barnacles! A type of crustacean that lives in high and low tides!" Jackie shouted.

"They're on Azure Mermaid's arm and they've got her stuck on the side of the boat!" Antonio responded. Despite their best efforts to pull him back, Jackie continued to be overwhelmed and pulled towards the ocean.

"He's still got some fight left in him! He must've attached them when Jackie hit him before, damn things keep multiplying!" Marco shouted.

"My Stand's strength... it's being drained." Jackie said in agony.

"The captain has disappeared. I can't see him in the water anymore." Zoltán points out as Star and Marco held Jackie, preventing her from being overboard.

"Jackie! Pull in your Stand right now!" Antonio yelled. "What do you think I'm trying to do?! That's why I'm sweating like an overworked horse, Mr. Macho!" The skater yelled, before falling over the railing.

"JACKIE!" The group yelled in unison as Marco summoned Crimson Tiger to catch the girl Azure Mermaid threw up to safety, but the once chill skater fell into the water.

"Dammit! She fell in!" Big Tony yelled, sweating bullets.

"We gotta-" Loki almost said as Jackie descended deeper in the water.

Jackie opened her eyes to see the captain above her, perched on the shoulder of his massive Stand. Jackie goes to attack him, only for the Dark Blue Moon to hit her with the **Water Torpedo**, but Jackie recovers with her Stand's durability.

"Welcome landlubber... Glad you could join me in the watery depths, it's where Dark Blue Moon reigns supreme, the undersea realm." The false captain gloated as he licked some blood off one of his gloves, "Bad idea to underestimate me, sister. Could be... deadly. Since we can talk underwater through our Stands, how about you pop out one of your boyfriend's cocky one liners before you die? What's the matter, catfish got your tongue, sister?" He asked before Dark Blue Moon lunges in to strike.

Jackie kept her mouth shut as Azure Mermaid spoke for its user while underwater, "So… what would you like after I'm done with you?" Jackie asked, confusing the bearded man. "It would be a shame to waste such fresh fish. Fish paste? Or maybe a plate of sashimi? I'll make one hell of a meal out of your Stand."

Unfortunately, this type of threat didn't faze the captain, "Don't play games with me. You're trying to sound tough, but I know the truth, young lady. The real terror of all this is starting to sink into your fine skull. I can even tell what you're thinking: "_How long can he stay underwater? I can probably last in about two minutes, but can he last longer than me?_" Am I right, sister? Let me answer you: my lung capacity is three times that of a normal human!" This answer made Jackie gasp in surprise.

"See for years I've been training, six minutes and twelve seconds is my best submerged time. You must be dizzy just hearing that number, right sister?" The false captain gloated. "And-!" Dark Blue Moon then punched one of the ship's propellers, "Dark Blue Moon's fins are cutters that move faster than the ship's propellers, far sharper too! Before you get overconfident again, you might wanna take long look at your Stand!"

The barnacles keep on spreading, covering Azure Mermaid to drain all her power as the captain continued, "It seems that Dark Blue Moon's barnacles have taken a liking to absorbing your Stand's power, how does it feel to have your life energy slowly draining away from your body?"

At this, Jackie attempted to escape to the surface. "Trying to run away by swimming back up? Take a good look around you! Haven't you realized, sister? Dark Blue Moon has created an underwater whirlpool! There's no way you can possibly escape! That's right swim faster, you'll just make it harder to breath while your power keeps draining! But it's a little too early to kill a stupid smart ass beauty like you just yet!" The fake captain shouted, his Stand paddling hard enough to create a vortex underwater.

"It's been too long… she's still not coming up!" Antonio shouted on the boat.

"A giant whirlpool! It must have her trapped!" Elior said.

"Where the hell is Jackie?!" Bosko questioned.

"Let's go and save her!" Star said as she went Butterfly mode, while the others summoned their Stands, Loki's Terminator stuck its' hand into the water... and immediately drew back, his hand was suddenly cut open. "These are scales! That guy's Stand has scale as sharp as razors!" He shouted, clutching his injured hand.

"There are countless scales swirling in that whirlpool! He wasn't bluffing when he said he can beat all five of us at once! It's like a watery antlion pit! If we dive in, it's very possible we'll be sliced to pieces!" Elior roared.

Meanwhile, Jackie was trapped by the whirlpool, "His scales?" She questioned, the scales began cutting both her and her Stand at random.

"I'll take a guess at what you're thinking: in a whirlpool, only one spot stays still. Such Monday logic, it's the eye. _"If I jump into the center of where he is, I can attack him._" That's what you're thinking, right?" The captain gloated. "If you believe you can hit me with that punch of yours again, then come and give it a shot! Throw your worthless Stand at me, its power is so drained, it doesn't have a chance! See if you can manage an attack, one that's even sharper than these underwater cutters! I'm waiting, sister!" He continued, not noticing that Jackie went limp and stopped fighting the current.

"Damn him! We're completely helpless!" Elior shouted in disbelief.

"It's Jackie! I just saw Jackie in the whirlpool!" Marco said, seeing his ex girlfriend struggling to fight.

"Shit, I don't think she's moving down there!" Bosko replied.

"She went limp on this fight, she's not struggling in the whirlpool!" Zoltán pointed out, Antonio made a hypothesis and quickly found the answer before saying, "That might actually be a good thing!" This confused the rest of the Vampire Hunters and the stranger girl.

"Weren't you going to turn me into sashimi, bitch? You're the one who's going to be sliced up!" The captain yelled, but Azure Mermaid found the strength to retaliate as two of its fingers broke away from the barnacles with a shout, "**STAR FINGER!**"

The fingers managed to strike and sliced two clean strips in the face of Dark Blue Moon. "I'm sorry, did I interrupt you? Who's gonna be sashimi?" Jackie asked the injured impostor, who started gurgling by the lack of air he's losing, "What's that? I can't hear you, you're gonna have to speak up, 'cause we're underwater."

"But your power is being drained. You let yourself go limp on purpose, didn't you? You concentrated your power on your fingers. That's what you're thinking all along." The imposter said as he sinks further.

"Not even close, the only thing on my mind... is how gross it'll be when I kick your stupid ass, and piss yourself underwater... that's all. But you know what they say... "All's fair in show business." _Au revoir_, captain." The skater said, taunting with her thumb down on the drowning opponent in victory, with a victorious smile on her face.

Jackie surfaced a few moments later, much to the delight and relief of her friends and allies. "You made it!" Star shouted with a smile, Jackie looked at Marco, who smiled with slight emotion, seeing her safe and sound.

"Atta girl!" Antonio roared with pride, as he prepared to throw a life preserver, "Now hurry back to the boat-!" He said, before a low rumble cut him off.

Suddenly, the ship began to explode. "The captain planted bombs all over the ship!" Loki shouted.

"Holy shit!" Bosko screamed.

"Everyone, hurry and fetch the emergency boats! We'll signal a nearby boat for help!" Antonio shouted, as the boat went up in flames and the scene faded to black…

_A day later, in the Gulf of Thailand:_

The Hunters, the stowaway girl and the three surviving crewmen are stranded in their lifeboat in the middle of the sea. Morning came, and everyone slept peacefully last night except for Jackie, the stowaway, Marco and Zoltán, the two young men were in the water, steering the boats all the way to Singapore.

"Here. Have some water." The skater said, offering a canteen to the girl, "We've already sent signals for help, so someone should be here soon. By the way, we never caught your name after all this."

The girl sipped from the canteen. "My name is Lucy." She said, glancing around the boat and noticed that Star smiling in her sleep.

"Lucy, huh? That's a nice name for a girl like you." Jackie complimented.

"I don't really know what in the world is going on, but who are you people?" She asked, taking another sip.

"Think of us as fellow travelers. You are going to see your father, but just like you, we're on a journey of our own, it's for my ex boyfriend's mom and sister." The girl nodded as the skater smiled at her kindly.

Lucy turns her head as if to ignore the kindness… and spits out her water when she saw something.

"Whoa there girl, slow down, that's good water!" Jackie said as she noticed the girl's reaction.

"E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E... Everyone, look!" Lucy shouts, rousing the others as a massive freighter sailed out of the fog towards them.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N: Happy President's Day readers, originally I was going to post this chapter on Valentine's Day, but time went on through all this, so I decided to post this on President's Day, since it's from the same month as Valentine's Day. Finally, Jackie has showcased her fighting in this chapter. Let's see what else our Vampire Hunters might encounter next. I'll try my best to write the next chapter soon, it's gonna be a tough one when I'm in college, but I won't give up on this. Also, the flashback part in the beginning was something I thought of... the poem Marco read was actually based on a Breaking Benjamin song I listened, "Never Again". The song was released in 2015 in the "Dark Before Dawn" album, it's a great song and I still listen to it. Feel free to Follow, Favorite and Review if it's okay.**

**SVTFOE belongs to Daron Nefcy**

**JoJo's Bizarre Adventure belongs to Hirohiko Araki**

**Never Again and Dark Before Dawn belongs to Breaking Benjamin**


	9. Strength

_Cairo, Egypt; Hugo's mansion_

Hugo materializes through the darkness, admiring himself in a mirror in front of him.

"Enyaba, there's something I'd like to ask you. What does it mean to live?" Hugo asked the small lady behind him.

"It's to obtain all that one desires. If you were to extend life into its essence, that is what it would be." Enyaba answers before going forward, "A lust for riches, a desire for fame, food, love and lovers, that is life's goal."

"But one must always fight to get what one wants. Isn't that correct, Enyaba?" Hugo questions as the lady gives a devious smirk.

"Indeed..." She chuckles evilly.

Hugo walks to a dark corner, "And if the battle is lost, and one fails to obtain what one desires most, the result is frustration, pain and a sense of fear. One carries the wound into the future, into the next fearful battle. I believe that conquering that fear, once and for all, is what it means to live. The one who stands in the pinnacle, is the one who has no fear. Do you understand, Enyaba?" Hugo said, seductively as he explained.

"I was the one who told you about the existence of your Stand and how to use it. Also, you have an immortal body. Is there anything you could possibly fear?" Enyaba questioned.

"Perhaps, old woman." Hugo answers nonchalantly.

"What burdens you, my lord?" The elder asked.

"The Malenko bloodline." The vampire answered, getting the wise woman's total attention.

"Hmm, Malenko?! They worry you?! Those Russian worms are mere trash! Your enemies are no match for your Stand!" The wise lady exclaimed.

"Yes, but I must believe it's destiny when the lives of those worms are so throughly entangled with mine. It is a fate that has been written for us all from the very beginning. Let me be clear: it is not the Malenkos that I fear, but the fact that I can never underestimate their bloodline. In order to obliterate all fear, I have decided that I must remove the Malenkos from the cogs of fate." Hugo explained before facing the stairs.

"You want to go and eliminate them yourself, simply because you feel that they cannot be underestimated?" Enyaba asked. "Yes." Hugo answered.

"Foolishness! You should never engage in such trivial matters, they are beneath someone of your stature. I've sent seven Stand users to command. The Empress, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man, Temperance, The Emperor and The Devil. All of them on the move and ready to strike whenever you call." Enyaba pointed out, showing different tarot cards, the scene now changed to where the Vampire Hunters left off, "Thanks to these allies, you need not take any action yourself, Lord Hugo." She finishes with an evil laugh.

_Meanwhile, The Gulf of Thailand_

The freighter steers toward the heroes, "A-A freighter!" One of the sailors stammered at the sight of it, "I didn't see it at all." Another one said very surprised.

Marco and Zoltán's heads pop out to look at the freighter in front of them, "Marco, Zoltán, something's bothering you isn't." Antonio asked.

"Are you guys worried there might be another Stand user on this freighter? It's not ideal, but we can handle it." Jackie pointed out, recalling that there are Stand users on the lose around the Asian continent.

"Not quite. It's strange that they lowered the stairs. But there's not a single soul to be seen around here anywhere." Marco replied as he and his Hungarian partner steered the boats to the stairs.

One of the boats approached the stairs and Bosko steps off before saying, "This ship came all this way to rescue us! There has to be some sort of crew on board! Even if they're all Stand users, I'm getting on this boat. I'm done drifting in circles." The Hunters and the marine crew looked at each other before deciding to join their Slovak ally on board, Antonio, Jackie and Marco looked at Lucy for a moment.

"Take my hand kid, I'll help you get up." Marco offered stoically, Lucy thought for a moment before jumping into Antonio's arms, she looked at Marco and stuck her tongue out in annoyance, Marco didn't react to the stowaway girl's behavior, but his response was, "_Buon dolore_."

The freighter they board on was severely silent and eerie, the Hunters and sailors explore around while they look for a crew, in the control room, a compass is moving slowly to a northern direction of where our heroes are going, the radios are turned off the wheel is straight, but no one is driving it.

"Hey, what's with this ship?!" Antonio asked as the Vampire Hunters enter the control room, "There's no captain in the control room?! There's no engineer in the radio room?! There's no one anywhere! And yet, look at this! All the gauges and machinery are working properly, just like normal!"

"Maybe they're just all in the bathroom with a bad case of the rums." Bosko answered with slight humor.

"Hey, isn't anyone around?!" Higgs called out to see if there's anyone on board aside from her, the rest of the Hunters, the Donatello sailors, and Lucy.

"You have to see this, come here quick!" Lucy said, getting the Vampire Hunters attention as she points to an open room, they walk in to find... what looks like a giant orangutan in a cage, "An ape! There's an ape inside that cage."

The orangutan looked at the trespassers with no emotion, "It's an orangutan." Loki corrected Lucy.

"Who the hell cares about some freaking ape!" Higgs yelled out, unimpressed by the orangutan.

"Let's split up and find whoever's been feeding this thing." Antonio said as he and the Hunters leave the ape inside, Lucy pauses and looks back at the orangutan, becoming a bit freaked out before running off with the others.

As they split up, Elior and Star check out some of the machines on the deck with the sailors, "Well..." Elior spoke as one of the marine officers checked the mechanism.

"It doesn't appear to be broken, but..." The sailor said while checking the controls, Antonio looked up to see the hook moving beneath the crew, "Elior! The sailor, watch out!" Antonio shouted out, but it's too late as the hook killed the sailor, hooking him through the back of his head and sticking it out of his mouth. The Hunters and the rest of the crew screamed in horror at the sight.

Lucy screamed in pure terror, but her eyes are now blocked by Marco's hands, blocking her view, "Buon dolore. That isn't anyway to greet a lady you've never met before now, is it?" Marco said, unimpressed.

The crew looked at the newfound terror in the form of a dead crew member hung above them, "But... no one was touching the controls." Sailor #1 said, terrified.

"I saw that crane move, even though there was no one operating it! I don't believe in ghosts, but what the hell?!" Sailor #2 replied.

"I saw it too, that crane impaled him all on its own!" Sailor #3 said.

"Keep your guard up! There's someone hostile here!" Antonio gave commands, warning everyone that there might be a Stand user on board, "Hey, don't touch the machinery, you got that?! If it moves or runs on electricity, don't lay a finger on it! If you wanna live, then you'll do exactly as I tell you, understand?! Get into the cabin below and stay there until I tell you otherwise!" With that, the crewmen went to where they're instructed, Lucy followed them as well. The Hunters turned to the Italian giant, Big Tony then asked, "Did any one of you see even a glimpse of a Stand just now?"

"I didn't." Bosko answered.

"Nope." Star followed suit.

"I don't think so." Higgs replied.

"My apologies." Elior said, all eyes turn to him, "I was the closest to the crane, yet I felt nothing. I should've been able to sense something."

"All right. I'll send Silver Terminator to take a look around the ship." Loki said as he summoned Silver Terminator and got to work.

Meanwhile, Lucy looked at them and stood there, _"I have no idea what's going on, but scary things keep happening whenever you guys are around. Could you guys be jinxed? I've heard about people who caused disasters that endanger everyone, if that's what you are, I'd better stay away."_ Lucy thought, but her train of thought went to a halt as the Vampire Hunters saw her watching them, Jackie walks towards her.

"I have just one bit of truth for you, so listen closely. What ever happens, we're on your side." Jackie told the little girl honestly, that got Lucy confused and concerned at the same time, "Stay safe, make sure you stay with the others. Got it?" Lucy nodded her head in response and went inside, making Jackie smile, but turned into a frown when she sniffed her top, "Let's see if this place has a shower room."

Confused by it, Star and Higgs sniffed as well, "I'm just gonna... join Jackie for a bit." Star said, "Right behind you." Higgs replied, leaving the boys to do the job.

Lucy wandered around the halls of the ship, she enters the control room, all the way to the orangutan's cage and sees the big ape shaking the bars until it sees her. She walks towards it and gets close, the orangutan points the look of the cage to her, "You want me to open the cage for you?" Lucy asked, getting what the ape is trying to say, "But I can't. I have no idea where the key is, and you're too big to let out." The ape gives Lucy a sliced half of an apple, "You're giving me an apple? But it doesn't make any sense. This apple's been cut with a knife, and the color hasn't really changed yet. It looks totally fresh, like it was cut a second ago. So, I guess there must be someone hiding somewhere on this boat. Where's the person who feeds you? Has he gone off and left you here?"

After asking the question, she heard something, she looks back to see a lit match on the ape's hand, a cigarette also appeared as the ape lights the cigarette to smoke... Which is odd, "Wow, you're a pretty smart monkey, who trained you to do that?" Lucy asked as the orangutan starts smoking, he then shows a playboy magazine and shows a picture of a model, making Lucy more freaked out and disturbed at this type of scenario, "No way! A monkey like you is actually into looking at... (gulp) pinups of girls?" She said, scared as the ape looks at her a bit, they stare at each other until an open door interrupted.

"Hey kid, be careful there!" Sailor #3 said, getting Lucy's attention, "They say an orangutan has five times the strength of a normal human, so it could easily rip off your arm." Sailor #4 reminded, pointing out some facts about the orangutan, "Come on. Stay with us in the room on the other side. Don't go off by yourself." Sailor #3 told her and Lucy joined them.

"Oh, okay." Lucy replied, leaving the orangutan to enjoy himself with the magazine.

Noon came around and the sun is setting, Silver Terminator returns after a struggling search, "It's inconceivable. I've had Silver Terminator search every inch of this ship, but I can't find any single sign of human life aboard. We've searched every pipe and crevice, but still came up empty handed!" Loki said, which earned a disappointing grunt from Marco.

The sailors began working on the radio in the control room, "Anything?" Sailor #2 asked, "It's no use. I can't get a connection." Sailor #1 answered, "Well try again, dammit!" Sailor #2 ordered as the first sailor got back to work.

Lucy looks on until she starts sniffing, she sniffed on her shirt, confirming that she she needed a shower, "Gross, I felt sticky from the saltwater." She says as she hears some giggling not too far, she finds a shower room with Jackie, Star and Higgs in there having a little bit of fun.

"Don't just stand there, come join us." Jackie said, sensing Lucy nearby, "Yeah. Come in, the waters fine." Star told her and Lucy wasted no time thinking about it and joins the girls. They have a lot of fun, giggling and humming around the showers, but they never realize that they're being stalked. A door opens revealing that the remaining crewmen are killed in a brutal fashion, and neither of the girls were aware of it. Lucy then sensed that someone was watching them and the curtain opens to reveal that the orangutan is out of his cage, the girls look at it petrified, unable to scream at this point.

Everything seemed quiet around the control room, the cage is shown to be open and empty, Marco and Zoltán see this for themselves, "Well, this is the most 'what the fuck' scenario I've ever seen." Marco responds sarcastically, "I concur." Zoltán replied.

The orangutan looked at the four naked girls like a stalker/pervert, but his main focus was on Lucy, because he sees her as easy prey. Lucy takes a towel to cover herself, the girls followed suit and back up to the wall behind them, the ape points at Lucy's body like he's about to touch her, but instead he lunges at them.

"Hey." A voice says, stopping the ape and get smacked in the face by Marco with a lock in his hand and Zoltán beside him.

"Marco! Zoltán!" Lucy said, and girls smile at the sight of their two allied powerhouses.

"Take your lock, you stinkin' ape!" Marco said as he threw the lock at the ape's face. The orangutan manages to shrug off the pain and grab Marco by the hoodie, "Seems that this thing isn't your run of the mill monkey."

"Could it be that he's the one...?" Zoltán asked, knowing that the orangutan in front of them is possibly a Stand user. The ape went to attack them, but Crimson Tiger countered the strike by punching the leg, that resulted in a fan to break off and fly like a propeller at Marco, striking him at the shoulder.

The orangutan laughed at it, but Marco didn't care about the pain he's feeling, "Wait, who the fuck ripped out that fan? It had to be him." Marco noted, getting the answer he and his friends wanted.

"So this ape's a Stand user, but where's the Stand? We should be able to see the thing, but we can't. It doesn't make any sense." Jackie said while referring to her and the powerhouse European duo as Stand users since Star, Higgs and Lucy are not.

Marco goes to remove the propeller from his shoulder, but the fan had a mind of its own and smacked the hand, "What the...? The steel propeller bent on its own like its alive." Marco spoke as the fan smacked Marco in the face and sent him flying and crash out to a door.

"Marco!" Star yelled out to her ex-boyfriend.

"Hey! What's going on here?!" Zoltán shouted and ran to Marco after the ape went ahead, as a result, a window glass shatters and flies towards Marco.

"Son of a bitch! There's no Stand in sight and somehow the window broke?!" Marco said as he summons his Stand, "Crimson Tiger!" With enough precision, Crimson Tiger catches all the glass shards without taking damage and uses them to punch the orangutan the stomach, only to see that he punched a wall after the smoke had cleared.

The orangutan is somehow phasing through the wall like a freaking ghost, "The hell is with the ape?" Jackie asked.

"The ape had just sank into the wall and disappeared!" Zoltán answered as he summons Wolf Sultan, Jackie summoned Azure Mermaid in case the ape comes back, Zoltán looked at the rest of the girls and said, "Hey. You ladies saw that right? Stay close to us. Something bad is going down."

_"The ape vanished into the wall. But that orangutan has to be the Stand user. When I touched it earlier, I felt the Stand's energy coming from it. I have no doubt that he's the one we're looking for. Doesn't make any sense, why can't we see the Stand like we always do?"_ Marco thought as he, Zoltán and Jackie prepare themselves for the orangutan to come back. Then something had occurred to Marco, _"Wait, what if we are all seeing it already?"_

Then the freighter starts shaking like an earthquake is happening, "What's happening?!" Star asked.

The ship starts molding on the outer deck, trapping the rest of the Hunters, "Whoa! What's going on?" Elior questioned in panic.

"This isn't good!" Antonio replied.

"It's absorbing us!" Bosko said.

"Is the freighter trying to... is... it's possible that the ship itself is...!" Antonio slowly puts the pieces together, but back inside, Marco quickly finds their answer.

"So the Stand's actually the freighter!" Marco shouted the answer to the riddle as pipes quickly grab ahold of Marco, Jackie and Zoltán, pinning them back against the wall. The orangutan returned and laughed at the Stand powered trio, "Shit, you son of a..."

"All of it! This ship itself and everything on it is a gigantic Stand!" Antonio managed to put the pieces together as he and the other Hunters continue sinking further on the steel.

"The entire ship?!" Bosko blurted out in shock, "So there are Stands that non-Stand users, like Star, Higgs, that girl and the crew members, can see?!"

"The only possible explanation for that is that it's immense energy is making it possible to see in the naked eye. But all this must demand tremendous energy to operate a Stand as huge as this!" Elior explained before turning to Loki, "Loki! Send Silver Terminator to Marco and Zoltán, they can help get us out of this!"

"I can't do that! It's got a firm hold on my Stand and I'm stuck!" Loki replied, unable to move from the steel holding him.

"This is what it means to face death! We fell for this trap!" Bosko said as he slowly sinks further, "And now we're hopelessly in dirt with no way to escape!"

Loki suddenly starts bleeding from his mouth before saying, "The pressure keeps increasing. At this rate, our bodies are gonna be pulverized. We will be..."

"Damn. We were careless. We got to..." Antonio tries to reassure, but the pressure was stronger.

The orangutan returned to his six victims, wearing the captain's outfit and a book in its hand. It was open and shows the Stand using trio the word he's pointing at.

_The word that the orangutan was pointing to was "__**Strength**__". It means force, energy, power, or aid. And it is the eighth card of the Tarot deck. It suggests challenge, a strong will, and hidden powers!_

The ape smokes a pipe and plays with a rubric cube in front of the Vampire Hunters, Marco has Crimson Tiger to break through the pipes easily, but the ape is well aware of that and summons more pipes to keep his enemies from escaping, the orangutan chuckles at Marco's misfortune.

_"Damn ape. He thinks he's won already, huh?"_ Jackie thought.

_"This entire ship is my Stand, and you've lost! You're totally outmatched and helpless! And there's nothing you can do!" The five Hunters needed no explanation, they knew exactly what the ape was saying!_

The cube was finished with the puzzle as the orangutan crushes the toy with his hand. Lucy looks terrified at this scenario, the orangutan then turns his eye on her and Star in a flirty manner, Lucy and Star scream in response and the orangutan goes all pervert mode on his prey.

Higgs takes out her sword and throws it to the ground next to the ape. The ape turns to the redheaded squire, "Over here, monkey. That sword's not part of your Stand." Higgs said as the orangutan picks up her sword and looks at it angrily, "Are you angry? I guess it wounded your pride, since you thought you'd already beaten us. No, it's not hurt at all isn't it? Because apes like you don't have any pride!"

This caused the ape to riot and tries to strike Higgs, but she countered the attack by kicking it in the belly, "That's exactly what makes you an ape and not a man." Higgs finished her taunt, which gave Marco enough time to strike, "What's going to hurt now... is your head!" Marco said as Crimson Tiger uses the **Star Finger** technique, courtesy of Jackie and Azure Mermaid, to strike the ape in the forehead, causing it to bleed out and shed blood tears from its eyes, he lies down and cries out in agony, allowing the pipes to weaken and the Stand using trio to break out of the stranglehold.

"_Buon dolore_." Marco said as the orangutan becomes scared and opens the uniform to show off his belly at them, "We've heard that when frightened, animals show off their stomachs to signal their submissions to the enemy. So, you're asking us to forgive you?" Marco asked the ape with no emotion as he tips his hat, the ape nods his head in response.

"I'm afraid your actions have already gone beyond the rules of the jungle. So, we don't think so." Jackie responded, much to the ape's dismay, and this followed by a barrage of punches, courtesy of Crimson Tiger, Azure Mermaid and Wolf Sultan, with their insane battle cries.

Crimson Tiger: "**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!**"

Azure Mermaid: "**ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!**"

Wolf Sultan: "**ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI!**"

And with one final cry, all three Stands gave a three punch combo to the face, launching it to door, breaking it and falls to the ground unconscious. The resulting defeat caused the ship to shake and distort.

"The pipes and walls are distorting. The whole ship is twisting up!" Lucy said in surprise.

"Hey. Be surprised about it later. The ship's about to sink." Star responded as she grabs Lucy and quickly put on their clothes along with Jackie and Higgs. "We have to leave! Let's get back to the life boats!" Star ordered and all four of them, along with Marco and Zoltán, make a run for it and escape to the outer deck.

The freighter starts molding and shrinking as the ten travelers watch on.

"Wow. I can't believe it. The ship's shape is changing. It's turning into a shoddy little boat." Lucy said, watching the entire transformation.

"If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe it. That ape was traveling the sea on its own Stand. What terrifying power. That was the first time I've encountered such energy." Elior said as the freighter shrunk into a small boat.

"Hate to say it, but we were completely overwhelmed this round. If Marco and Zoltán hadn't figured it out with the girls, we would've been done for." Antonio said as Loki combs his hair, Marco and Zoltán steer the remaining life boat to Singapore, Jackie joins them for a swim, "Are we going to encounter even more Stands with crazy unknown powers from now on? We'll have to be ready for anything."

"Hey, you want some gum?" Bosko asked as he gives some gum to Big Tony.

"So, we're going to be drifting again." Elior said as the boat flows out to the sea.

"_Buon dolore_. This would be a cold, endless workout." Marco responded in annoyance.

"There will be plenty of sun and time to relax for a bit, Marco." Jackie replied.

"We'll have to pray that we get rescued and reach Singapore safely... and soon." Zoltán finished the conversation and the Hunters drift off to Singapore.

_There are forty-six days until time runs out for the Malenkos!_

_Cairo, Egypt; Hugo's mansion_

Hugo sat in a chair, reading a book with a lit candle beside him, Enyaba delivers the bad news, "My lord. It would appear that Strength has been defeated. But have no fear. The remaining six Stand users are all very powerful and each deadlier than the last. And one of them is my son, his right arm shall crush our enemies. The Malenkos will not pose a threat when he's around with them." Enyaba responds as she shows that she has two right hands, meaning that her son was the murderer of Bosko's little sister.

"You are a strange old woman. What is it that you desire the most?" Hugo asked.

"Oh, but I've told you many times. My only wish is to stay by your side, my lord. Your guardian spirit has unbelievable power. Your ability to escape trouble, and your strange life are the result of that." Enyaba answered as Hugo's Stand appears beside him transparently, "I would like to see your life unfold. It's the only thing I want."

_Singapore on the next day_

A ship appeared and rescued the Vampire Hunters and brought them to the country itself.

_Once upon a time, there was a prince from the land of Sumatra, who traveled the seas seeking new lands. Eventually, he happened upon an island inhabited by lions called Singas. An island he named, Singapura. Today, its straits were filled with ships and tankers from around the world. It's nation that shares both Western and Eastern heritage thanks to free trade, it's tropical Singapore!_

The Vampire Hunters finally made it and went around, "Good grief. We finally made it to dry land." Bosko commented.

"We'll clean up and get some rest at a hotel. Once we recharge, we'll figure out our route to Egypt. All right, let's stay in that one." Big Tony said as they head to the hotel he chose. Unknown to them, in the room 912, a ventriloquist dummy sat at a nightstand with dark aura surrounding it.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**A/N: Well, that was good, anyway happy Spring Season. Spring has begun and about to go nuts now that Stardust Crusaders is on Netflix, I even watched the third season of Castlevania and it was amazing and if they release season four, I can't wait to see what happens next. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the chapter, things are about to go insane. Another thing, the Coronavirus pandemic is happening and it's super serious when it comes to this virus. Let's just hope that this pandemic passes in time. Thank you.**


	10. Devil and Temperance

**Flashback: Echo Creek, California, 1995**

Around town, young Rafael Diaz was jogging around the street as he saw the Purple Dragon Gang assaulting a man's car and robbing a convenient store at night. He looked at the carnage and grabbed a baseball bat for a brawl.

"Hey assholes!" He called them out, the Dragons attention now turned to the Mexican street punk, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!"

The Dragons looked at him and went for it. The scene changed to a hideout, a few members of the Purple Dragon Gang began to listen to a gang member before they decided to riot against the mayor.

"It's finally high time to show the mayor that we own this city! Let him threaten us with his brute strength, time to show him what happens when he messes with the Purple Dragon Gang!" The gang member exclaimed as pulled a sheet, unveiling young Angie Malenko, tied up in a chair, crying, gagged up, she's in peril and needs her father more than ever.

At city hall, Antonio Malenko sat in his office as he got a call from an unknown caller, "Hello, Antonio Malenko speaking."

"Heh heh heh... Mr. Malenko, so pleased to make your acquaintance. I believe you know who I am, don't hang up, we have a little business proposition for you. Your daughter for your cooperation. And we'll throw in the regular monthly bonus to your salary that we offered before." The threatening voice said.

At the mention of his teenage daughter, Antonio felt a bit threatened by this before saying, "What?! What happened to Angela? Who is this?!"

"Not so fast, Tony. Turn on the TV." The voice said and Antonio did as he was told.

On TV, he saw his daughter tied up, crying and tortured, this made Big Tony furious, "You son of a... What've you done to her?!"

"Nothing yet, but we'd enjoy the opportunity." The voice answered with a creepy tone, "Listen to reason, man. Why make your job difficult? Just let us do as we please, like the mayor before you did."

The call ended and Big Tony slammed his fist into his desk, instead of listening, he decided to take matters into his own hands, but he can't do it alone. Because out in the street, a certain Mexican is brawling with the gang members, and a South Korean ninja has returned from his training.

**Present Day: Singapore, 2019**

_Around the streets of Singapore:_

The Vampire Hunters, now back to their regular Adventure gear, walk around before heading to the hotel.

"Feels great, walking around the _Lion City_." Marco said, feeling the breeze of Singapore itself.

"Indeed, the country sure has evolved over the years." Zoltán replied.

"You boys really should teach us." Star complimented, a whistle is heard as an officer runs towards the group like he was in a hurry.

"Hey you! Turn around! Yeah, you in the faux hawk!" The officer exclaimed, referring to Bosko, this confused the Slovak in question, "Yeah you! You threw this trash right? Then it's 500 Singapore dollar fine!"

"No way. 500?" Bosko asked, confused.

"The law here forbids littering and fines all violators for doing so, and that means you!" The officer explained, even showing the sign of said law.

"Five hundred Singapore dollars is..." Loki said before Antonio cut him off, "I think that's gotta be about nearly 351 US dollars, or in case of Europe, 324 euros."

"Trash?" Star questioned.

"Are you clear on that, punk?" The officer asked to the completely confused Slovak.

"Trash? What are you talking about, sir?" Bosko asked, he looked down to see that the officer is pointing at his luggage bag. Higgs tried to hold back her laughter as Bosko continued, "All I see on the ground here is my luggage. So... you got me a little confused now. Would you be so kind as to tell me what trash you're referring to, officer? If you're wrong, then I'm obeying the law, right? So where is it?"

That caught the officer off guard and nervous, "You mean that bag is your luggage?"

"Yeah, you got it." Bosko said as the officer apologized for the mistake, the scenario made the Hunters laugh at this, another laugh is heard, the Vampire Hunters stop as they turn to the source of it, it appears that Lucy had followed them, she stops laughing and scoffs, turning away.

"I've gotta get going." The officer ran off.

"Yeah, shoo, shoo." Bosko said before glancing at the stowaway that's following them, "What's up with this kid? She's still following us like a lost puppy."

"Hey, weren't you going to see your father once we got here?" Antonio asked the little girl.

"Why don't you stop tagging along and go, you're here now so move on." Bosko replied, which earned a scoff from Lucy.

"I'm meeting up with him in five days. I can go wherever the hell I want! I'm not taking orders from you jerks." Lucy said and turns away, but looks at them again as she stares at the certain hooded Russian in red.

"She mustn't, she'll be in danger if she stays with us." Elior stated.

"Well maybe, she lacks of cash for a place to stay." Higgs said as Big Tony replies, "Then that's it, we have to get her a hotel room for a few nights. Hey Bosko, get her to come with us and try not bruise her ego."

"You got it." Bosko said before approaching Lucy, "Hey! You're stinkin' poor, are you? Consider this your lucky day, freeloader."

Lucy gives a disappointing sigh at the Slovak's ego, this gave the rest of the Hunters a negative reaction, "Oh for God's sake, Bosko." Antonio said as Loki and the girls chuckle at the poor performance, Marco and Zoltán face palmed at it.

"Well, let's go check in." Elior said.

"Okay guys, come on." Jackie replied as the Vampire Hunters and Lucy enter the nearest luxury hotel, they check in as the receptionist tells Big Tony, "I'm terribly sorry, sir, but we tend to be full at this time of year. We no longer have any large suites available. May I suggest our double rooms?"

"I guess we're stuck. Now, for the rooms... Elior and I will share a room with each other." Antonio said as he began dividing in rooms for two.

"It'll make sense for Marco and I to share a room, since we're both wrestlers. Does that help, Antonio?" Zoltán asked, Marco hummed in response.

"How 'bout it, Bosko? We got no problem if we share a room." Loki said as Bosko nodded in response.

"Star and I will share a room." Jackie said.

"Sure, if it helps?" Star asked.

"Then the last room goes to Higgs and...?" Elior said before all eyes went on Lucy before making the decision, Lucy was surprised by who she's rooming with.

"That's just gross! Like I'd room with this girl!" Lucy complained.

"You little brat!" Higgs said as Lucy stuck her tongue out, Higgs rolled her eyes in disappointment.

"Come on, Higgs. She may be a child, but give her a chance." Jackie said as Higgs and Lucy groaned in annoyance.

"Then it's decided. We'll take five rooms please." Antonio concluded as the receptionist happily handed over the room keys. Marco and Zoltán decided to crash in room 912, while others decided to crash in the other rooms.

"Alright, I can finally relax in a shared room anyway. I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight." Bosko said before he and Loki departed, but they didn't leave the team hanging, "Let's go. We've been through all kinds of hell since the day we left Hong Kong. We should hurry up and take a shower in a place where it's actually safe."

This statement caused the Hunters to chuckle before splitting up to their respective rooms. Marco and Zoltán went and entered room 912, when they came in, an ominous chill went down to their spines, but they didn't bother to react and went along like everything was normal.

"...Give us one reason why we shouldn't throw you off this balcony right now. Huh, give us one reason." Marco spoke to no one, but the wrestling duo felt that someone is here. Marco went to the small refrigerator and... "I'M TALKING TO YOU, STUPID!"

That particular scream was effective enough to scare the invader out of his hiding place, "You got me! You got me!"

Marco grabs the invader by the throat and pins him against the wall, the unwanted guest has tan skin (Native American descent), long dark brown hair, brown eyes, a jacked up physique, and scars on his body and face, he wears a brown leather vest, black slacks, brown boots, and black gloves.

"We don't know who you are, or what you're up to. But you're not slaughtering us that easily." Zoltán said, the two pros surround the Native American, looking to interrogate him, "Why don't you tell us your name and why you're here for?"

"Well if you insist, my name is Devo the Cursed, and since you're probably wondering, my Stand is the card of the Devil, it represents insanity of the cursed, and the precipitates in malevolent fall into ruin." Devo said as the tarot card of the Devil is shown. "But tell me, how did you know I was hiding inside the fridge?"

"Guess you really are that stupid! You took everything out of the fridge and didn't bother throwing any of them away you dumbass." Marco answered as he pointed at the cold cans and bottles.

Devo smirks and prepares for battle, "Time to die, Marco Diaz! **Ebony Devil**!"

Meanwhile, S/J (Star and Jackie) decided to head over to M/Z's (Marco and Zoltán) hotel room with L/B (Loki and Bosko).

"The least we can do is to show that we can be strong for him, or maybe not, we can't know for sure." Jackie tells Star about Marco and his decisions.

"I'm just not that strong enough. I mean, he beat me up and left me out of the blue, I always imagined that he'd come to his senses and return quickly and forgiving, but that never happened as of now." Star replied, remembering her theory of Marco's return as the safe kid that everyone remembered, but all of that was nothing more than a fantasy when he returned as a stoic, emotionless, and violent powerhouse.

"Star, listen, I miss him too, we don't how much time we should have to forgive him. Hell, even Janna missed him, she's just too afraid to admit it." Jackie said as she remembered that Janna secretly had a crush on Marco, but she never came clean about it.

"You think that's funny? Higgs was very happy when she heard about it. And over a span of a few months, she felt like she had lost a rival. I tried to talk to her about it, but she was afraid to admit her feelings." Star said, recounting Higgs' sudden depression.

"Could you two stop talking about Marco, the only thing in my mind is that when you said about Janna, it's really making me laugh." Loki said as he, Bosko, and the girls gave a heartfelt laugh at the small humor.

Their laughter came to a halt as a door burst open, all four turned around to see Devo the Cursed sitting in the carpet as Zoltán began to brawl with him, they later see Marco fighting a dummy for no reason. Zoltán has Devo in a Full Nelson as Marco grabs the dummy by the face.

"Talk about a giant bucket in the sky! Tell the colonel I said hi!" Marco said as he crushes the Stand dummy, Ebony Devil, with the **Iron Claw**, this also resulted in Devo's head to be crushed in the most gruesome way as blood bursts out spraying both the wall and Zoltán's face.

"HOLY SHIT! That's like an intense ass game of Whack-A-Mole! Fuck bro, you did it, I think this room's clean." Loki exclaimed in excitement, when he looked at the room, it was a mess. The bed was broken, somebody got slammed on the drawers and bathroom door, and the cold beverage were out of the fridge, "Well, maybe not clean, but the Stand user's dead. What the hell are we gonna about the corpse?"

"Right... Ask the Russian." Marco said, reminiscing the Gulags of the Soviet Union. They took the dead body outside, poured some gas around it, lit a match and the incineration begins, "HAAA! That's what fucking hell feels like!" He gives a mad cackle as the others watch the scene unfold, they even joined in the laughter.

With Devo the Cursed taken care of, Loki and Bosko went to Antonio and Elior as they discuss their main topic, Hugo. Elior gave a brief explanation about Devo the Cursed and about his occupation.

"That was cutting it close, even for us. To think that the enemy's pursuit would come so early on?" Elior said, knowing the struggle that the team might face.

"Don't forget that Hugo's body used to belong to Ricardo Malenko, while they're united, he'll know everything Marco and I do. That's why his minions attacks are relentless. But we can use that against him, and read his thoughts just as he reads ours." Antonio points out, thinking of a strategy to try before heading to their main destination.

"Shall I go buy a camera?" Star asked, entering the room, apparently she had heard everything.

"That won't be necessary. I can use my powers, even without a camera." Antonio answered and points at the television.

"What?" Bosko asked, confused at Tony's statement.

Big Tony then holds the TV with his hands, holding it still as he summons Emerald Mage to locate Hugo and read his thoughts. It lands on different channels, from an old gangster movie, to a commercial, to a news report, to a cartoon series, before they become static as Big Tony concentrates harder.

"Very strange. The channels are changing as if the TV has a mind of its own." Elior said, feeling impressed by Antonio's ability.

"It's searching for words from among the channels and connecting them into a sentence. Creating a message for the ear, not the eye." Tony points out, the channels soon start dancing and form a sentence.

"_It looks like there... is a..._"

"There! I think the first part is "There is a"!" Loki blurts out, without breaking Big Tony's concentration.

"_...trai...tor... whose among... us._"

"Wait, what was that? What the hell did it just say?" Tony asks.

"I could be wrong, but I think it said that there is a traitor who is walking among us." Star answers before the TV gives another hint, the name of the traitor.

"_Hi... iggs... Beware... of... her. Hu... go's... loy... al... ser...vant._"

"Higgs? What? It can't be!" Tony exclaimed.

"That's impossible. Higgs is Hugo's servant?" Elior questioned as the TV goes static and morphs into Hugo, shirtless and with his back to them.

"That is..." Bosko blurts out, looking at the picture of their main enemy.

"_Malenko you bastard, you're watching me. Well watch this._" Hugo said as he cracks the TV.

"Hugo!" Tony shouted.

"He found us, look out!" Elior exclaimed as the TV explodes, sending the five Hunters flying and crash on the wall of the room.

"But that can't be true, can it?" Star asked.

"You know as well as we do. Emerald Mage says that Higgs is a traitor, a servant to Hugo, who'll at some point, betray all of us." Antonio replied.

"It can't be!" Bosko exclaimed at this surprise.

"There must be a reason, I won't believe that Higgs is a traitor. There has to be an explanation." Loki points out.

"We'll have to be even more alert. If she is connected to Hugo, she could exterminate any one of us while we're sleeping. She'd be like Hugo's very own Trojan Horse." Tony warned, but unknown to anyone, Higgs is already out with Marco, Zoltán, Jackie and Lucy, looking menacing with a blank face.

Lucy jogged to a nearby kiosk, "Can I get some ice cream please?" She asked the shop owner.

"Welcome. You know, ice cream is pretty good, but this baby here, chilled coconut juice is nothing in the world like it. How about it?" The owner said as he offered Lucy some chilled coconut juice.

Before she could say anything, a voice interrupted, "I guess we could try it." Marco said as he, Zoltán, Jackie, and Higgs approached the kiosk, "Make it five, then."

"Thank you much. That's twenty dollars." The owner confirmed it.

"Hey jerk, what're you trying to pull? Make it ten." Lucy said, annoyed at the price of the coconuts.

"Here. This should cover it." Zoltán said as he pulled out his wallet and handed the man $20.00.

"Okay, thanks. Enjoy." The owner said before he handed the coconuts, until a nearby punk snatches the wallet from the Hungarian gentleman.

"I'll take that." The punk said as he runs away. Higgs looks on before kicking a small rock on the back of his leg, this caused the punk to collapse as he looks back to see Higgs towering over him. Giving off a menacing aura.

"So, you dumb, useless, disgusting piece of shit, who the hell do you think you are?" Higgs questioned, which made Marco and the others see the scuffle, "I'll make you wish that you were never born!" She said as she smashes the punk's face with her knee.

"Higgs!" Marco called out, but his rival didn't listen, she's still focused on the punk.

"Get up, you vile little cockroach dick. Do we look like easy pickings to you?" Higgs asked, she pulls the punk's hair as he coughs out blood from his mouth, "And now, you'll feel the pain." She then pulls him to a Backbreaker submission as he screams for his life, "How dare you touch my rival's wallet with the same grimy fingers to wipe your filthy ass! I can't let you get away with something like that, now can I?! Can I?! Come on, tell me!"

"Higgs, stop! What're you doing to this guy?! You'll kill the bastard!" Marco called out once again, but Higgs kept on torturing the thief.

"How the... oh my god. A Backbreaker? What a brutal move. And she's using such filthy language, it's not like her at all." Lucy said as she observed the scene with Jackie and Zoltán.

Higgs kept on going, until Marco finally intervenes and forces Higgs to let the punk go. "Now cut it out dammit! You're losing control! You're acting like such a bitch. Something's not right. What the hell's gotten into you."

Higgs looks back at her rival with envy, "That hurt you know. You didn't have to shove me around like you're the one in charge. That man tried to steal your buddy's wallet, he was committing a crime, and criminals should be punished." She replies as she grabs a coconut from Lucy before taking a sip. "Tell me, am I wrong, nerd? You'd do the same, old prick."

Marco didn't find it amusing, but he hasn't heard her insults she gives him for a long time since she left for the Neverzone to train.

"What are you glaring at? You know the look in your eyes is awfully hostile, nerd." Higgs said, noticing the glare from Marco's face, "What's wrong? Why're you so upset? You couldn't possibly be thinking about ending our truce over a little tussle with a thief now, would you? You're acting as if I've done something unforgivable."

The thief crawls away as Zoltán retrieves his wallet. The tension between old frenemies is interrupted by exciting cheers from kids. The four Hunters and Lucy turn to see kids standing in front of a tree, looking at beetles.

Higgs then gives a small chuckle, "Marco, you're making way too big of a deal out of this. I'm just having a bad day, no big thing. I'm so exhausted from the trip, it's put me in such a bad mood."

"Just a bad mood, huh? Seemed to me, you felt pretty good." Marco replied, feeling suspicious of his former rival. "Dedushka and Elior think it's a good idea for us to head to India by train. We leave tomorrow. We'll take the cable car to Singapore Station to reserve tickets."

Higgs sips some more coconut juice, the kids run off away from the tree, Higgs then looks at the tree.

"Come on, we should head there." Jackie said as she, Zoltán, and Lucy follow Marco to the cable car. Lucy then looks at Higgs and saw her eating something, she assumed that's the coconut.

"I'll catch up in just a second." Higgs answer, she kept on chewing something.

"O... Kay then, I guess you must like coconut juice a whole lot." Lucy said before walking away, following the departing trio. Higgs turns around, just as Lucy turns back to see her, apparently she was eating a beetle, which scared Lucy a little bit just as she saw that there were four beetles on the tree sap, now there were three.

She runs back to the trio and Lucy grabbed onto Marco. "What's up, half pint?" Marco asked.

"N-Nothing, don't worry." Lucy replied in fear, the trio then look at Higgs, who gave them a blank expression.

At the cable car station, they wait for their ride, with ice cream in their hands.

"Hey, nerd. You gonna eat that cherry? If not then hand it over already. I'm starving." Higgs said as she takes the cherry from Marco's ice cream, then she shoves him from the balcony. "Uh oh, better watch out, nerd." Zoltán, Jackie, and Lucy caught him on time, "Hahahahaha. Good one, huh? I'm only playing with ya. Good old Marco." She then began to lick the cherry, intensifying the licking like she had done something crazy until the cherry slips from her mouth.

"_It's like... she's a totally different person._" Lucy thought.

"That look again. What's with this hardcore glaring, nerd? Have you lost your sense of humor?" Higgs asked, but Marco didn't say anything. Higgs then picks up the cherry from the ground and eats it, then she suddenly grew in size, reaching Marco's height in the process.

"Get in, Higgs." Marco said as the cable car arrived, his suspicions leveling him towards aggression, "The cable car just got here, and I told you to get in. See, I've got your ticket right here." Marco shows her his fist, "I'm gonna knock your crooked possessed ass right into that cable car."

Then Marco punches a few seconds later, dislocating her jaw... and splitting her face wide open! This caused the Hunters to gasp and Lucy to scream.

"You're a bit off. **Possessed** isn't quite the word. Wanna give it another try?" 'Higgs' asked before giving more intensifying licks with the cherry.

"Wait a minute. This ain't Higgs." Marco said, now noticing what's going on.

"Congrats on not being as stupid as you look. Though you still haven't realized my body's been growing this whole time, haven't you?" 'Higgs' replies, standing up as Marco enters the cable car alone to go face to face.

"Alright, who are you?" Marco asked before he starts speaking through his thoughts, "_Is she a Stand? Can't be, I was able to touch her just now. Unless she's a Stand that can strike with my own fists?_"

The cable car departed, leaving Zoltán, Jackie, and Lucy by themselves, while on board, 'Higgs' explains who 'she' is while 'her' feminine voice becomes deeper and distorted, "I can merge with any organic matter I consume. I'm a Stand anyone can see and touch, lucky them, don't you think?" Then the voice goes back to normal, but this time it sported a masculine voice, "I'm **Yellow Temperance**, of the Temperance card." The body starts molding into a type of yellow goo, and it suddenly burst open, revealing a shirtless man with light skin, chiseled, a handsome face, a brown mullet, and khakis with brown boots, "Gaze upon my handsome face with envy!"

The two men stood there in a small confrontation in the cable car, the shirtless man, who dubs himself as Rubber Soul, speaks to the crimson Stand user, "Come now, Marco, old pal. Take a good look at your hand. See that little bit of me? It latched on when you hit me and really doesn't wanna let go." Marco does as told and sees that a small yellow goo was attached to his right pinky, eating his flesh, "I advise you not to touch, or it'll go after your left hand, too. You should save your left hand for picking your nose. This Stand is a slow eater, and the more it eats, the bigger it gets. You'll never get it off."

"Crap... Damn you!" Marco then summons Crimson Tiger, "**ORA!**"

"What do you mean "ORA"? When I digest you, I'll shove your crap down your shitty throat!" Rubber Soul said as Yellow Temperance gets attached to Crimson Tiger's right arm, causing Marco's arm to catch fire.

"The hell? This stuff burns!" Marco said, feeling the fire in his arm as Rubber Soul gives an evil cackle, "Damn bastard!"

Meanwhile, Lucy calls up the rest of the Hunters while Zoltán and Jackie stood beside her, watching the brawl.

"Hey, is this Marco's grandpa? He needs your help!" Lucy panicked as the line was finally on.

"Lucy? Tell me what's wrong?" Antonio said as the others decided to listen in.

"It's Ms. Higgs..." Lucy replies.

"What about Higgs?" Tony asked again.

"It's true, seems she has betrayed us." Elior said, confirming the theory of Higgs being a traitor.

"Ms. Higgs face split and now she's a giant! But Ms. Higgs wasn't Ms. Higgs, she's a fake and... Marco got attacked by some weird slime on the cable car and now it's eating his finger!" Lucy explained frantically.

"Calm down, Lucy! Where are you now?" Star asked.

"We're at the cable car station at the trade center. He's being attacked! Ms. Higgs went crazy and she's attacking Marco!" Lucy exclaimed again.

"Hurry and come back to the hotel as fast as you-" Star said until she was cut off by a familiar tsundere like voice.

"Did someone say may name just now?" Higgs entered the room, wearing her Adventure uniform.

"Where the hell have you been?" Bosko asked her, confused about why Higgs was here and not with Marco.

"That nerd left me behind, so I decided to sunbathe by the pool." Higgs answered, she still hadn't lost her minor hatred for Marco.

"With your bikini on?" Loki asked.

"Until I had enough." Higgs answered.

"It's all right. We have the real one here with us." Big Tony said before Star took the phone.

"Lucy, be careful, this means your Higgs is a fake!" Star concluded it.

"I told you that!" Lucy argued until the standing trio heard a crash, they look to see Marco escaping the cable car, "Oh no! Marco just jumped out of the cable car!"

Jackie then sprinted and hopped onto the cable, "Jackie! What are you doing?!" Zoltán asked.

"We won't know how far he'll make it! I'm going after him!" Jackie answered as liquid fills her shoes, forming liquid skating wheels on them and glides through the cable, skating towards Marco.

Marco takes out his Morning Star whip and uses it as a grappling hook, Jackie was able to make it and grabs the chain of the whip, with her Stand's strong grip, she pulls Marco to the top of a tower, Marco releases the whip from his hand, letting Jackie hold it, as he looks at his hand to see the small bit of Yellow Temperance devouring him.

"_Buon _freaking _dolore_." Marco muttered out loud, "_A Stand that fuses with flesh? It's devouring my finger, this could get bad... First, I gotta get this stuff off me. Might be easier said than done. It might mean that I have to cut off my finger._" He thought as he sets his eyes on Rubber Soul.

"Ha, do you really think you got away? Sorry to burst your bubble, old pal. Now dig that earwax out of your ears and listen up, hotshot. Your time's run out, 'cause Yellow Temperance has no weaknesses!" Rubber Soul called out, explaining about his Stand's attributes, "You didn't escape. It's just that I don't have to chase you. You're as good as dead! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Marco takes out a lighter from his left pocket, Jackie saw this after she puts away the Morning Star, "Marco don't... it'll hurt you more."

"Then use your water to heal it, 'cause this'll hurt like a son of a bitch. But I don't have a choice." Marco said as he tries to burn the goo, but that resulted in the goo to grow and make it worse.

"Woah, what the hell? The flame only made it grow bigger." Jackie noted as the fire theory had backfired.

"That was a bad idea. Damn, I thought I had it." Marco said as he and Jackie saw another cable car with a kid licking a popsicle, without hesitation, Marco grabbed Jackie with his left arm and made a quick and long jump to the cable car, Crimson Tiger breaks the door to get in.

Once in, a puppy started barking at the two strangers on board, "Sorry about the sudden entrance." Jackie said, there were three passengers on board.

"My goodness, that's certainly a bizarre entrance." The lady said to the ex-couple.

"Don't mind us." Marco said before approaching the little boy, "Hey there, kid. I'm gonna need to borrow your popsicle for just a second." This nearly made the kid cry as Marco snatched the popsicle from him.

"Hold on, young man. What is it you think you're doing with that child?" The lady asked.

"Is this your kid?" Marco asked back.

"No he's not, but-" The lady said before being cut off by Marco.

"Then shut up and enjoy the scenery, lady." Marco said.

Jackie looked at the tearing boy and decided to comfort him, "Sorry about that. Once we get down, I'll buy you a new one, okay? Whatever kind you like." The boy nodded in response.

"If I can't burn it off..." Marco then uses the popsicle on the slime, only to spike up, piercing on Marco's hand, "That bastard... Now it's forming needles and digging even deeper into my hand!"

"You really are stupid. Nothing will work on it, not even fire and ice." The lady said, surprising Marco and Jackie with wide eyes, she blows her nose and begins to fondle her breast, "I told you before, didn't I? You won't find a single weakness." She then traps the dog with her legs as Yellow Temperance forms and begins to devour the dog, "And now you're mine, you little shit!"

"Papa! The puppy! It's got our puppy!" The boy tries to wake his dad, warning him about the shenanigans in front of them.

"You bastard! You were already in this cable car waiting for us, weren't you?" Marco asked in bitter anger.

The dad wakes up and shrieks at the sight, "No! Please, don't hurt Pocky!" The dad tries to pull the dog with the leash in fear.

"Watch out! Don't pull! Let go!" Jackie tries to reassure, but it's too late, the dad pulled the leash too hard and the puppy's head was torn off.

"And now it's your turn to die! Marco and Jackie!" Rubber Soul said as he gets off his disguise, which caused Crimson Tiger to quickly rip off the pole above him to strike, "Wow, you're fast. But..." Yellow Temperance reacts quickly and grabs the pole, "I keep telling you, I don't have any weaknesses! Are you even listening to me? You dumbass Latino! My Stand is armor that can also absorb power, a defensive wall that can also attack. No matter how fast you are, no matter how strong or smart you think you are, against Yellow Temperance, you are helpless! There's no way you can defeat me. You won't survive, unless of course you can suck it up and take a cleaver to your right hand. Do you understand?!" Yellow Temperance begins to cover the cable car, catching Marco and Jackie while sparing the father and his son, "Try as hard as you want, you have no way of winning! You're not getting out of this! Not until you're digested. I'll eat you up!"

Marco was unfazed by his possible doom, he just shrugged it off, "_Buon dolore_. You're right, you don't really have any weaknesses. Maybe you are the world's strongest, and that's terrifying. But I'll tell you, we Diaz... no wait, I mean Malenkos, we use strategy to fight our way past any obstacle. You haven't won yet. And I still have one strategy left."

"Really?" Rubber Soul questions Marco's intellect.

"And that's to..." Marco then hears his grandfather's voice, repeating the same phrase before Crimson Tiger was able to punch a hole in the cable car, "Run away!" Marco grabs Jackie to fall down the hole, dragging Rubber Soul with them.

"What the hell?! You're in the middle of being eaten alive, you dumbass! My Stand's got a hold that you can't escape and say that you run away?! Don't make me laugh!" Rubber Soul comments with a sinister smirk.

"When I said run away..." Marco said as Crimson Tiger grabs Yellow Temperance and they crash into the water below them, and Crimson Tiger puts Rubber Soul in a chokehold, "I meant into the water."

"Dammit. Ah... I can't breathe..." Rubber Soul struggles to resist, but the water made him run out of air. Then he escapes and tries to catch some air, Crimson Tiger then stares at him, like he was close to the camera/screen.

"You let your Stand's guard down to take a breath. Your Stand may be invincible, but you sure as hell aren't, if I destroy you, then your Stand dies too." Marco said as Crimson Tiger holds Rubber Soul in a Full Nelson, "Do you understand? Listen, I've had enough to hear with that cocky ass mouth of yours. Alright? I just happen to be the type of guy who takes these things to heart." Marco then proceeds to punch him in the face, knocking off a few of his teeth and dislocating his jaw, then he elbows him to the face, breaking his nose.

Jackie watched after resurfacing from the water, she cringed a bit at the brutal double tap, Rubber Soul resurfaces again, with a broken face, begging for mercy, "No, please, stop it! I can't fight anymore, I'm through! My beautiful nose is completely shattered! And my face is so messed up, they're gonna have to wire my jaw shut too! It hurts. Spare me, Hugo, he paid me to do this. Look, I don't plan on risking my life going after you guys." Rubber Soul calls in Yellow Temperance, finally leaving the ex-couple alone and spared, "There, see?"

"I want something from you. The other Stand users, I want all the info you've got." Marco interrogates.

"But, that's the one thing I can't say. Don't ask me that. Please, I won't do it. I mean, I do have some pride, you know? I just can't, okay?" Rubber Soul begs some more, but that caused Marco to raise his fist, Jackie swims close to him, before things could get ugly.

"Okay then. That's honorable." Marco warns him, showing no mercy.

"I remember now! There're four of them okay? One is the Emperor, then Hanged Man and Empress, and the last one goes by Death." RS confesses, stating the Stands that the Vampire Hunters might face ahead.

"That's good. And what about their powers?" Jackie asked, she wants to learn more.

"Sorry, I don't know." Marco still shows him his fist, RS still gets the message, "No, no, really! I honestly don't know anymore! Don't you see? Stand users don't reveal their powers. If they did, they'll be exposing their weaknesses, outright! I do know something, some witch taught Hugo about Stands, and her son is one of the four coming after you. His name is J. Geil," the scene changed with a dark background and two right hands, along with the tarot card of the Hanged Man, "he's unmistakable because he's got two right hands. His card is the Hanged Man."

The scene changed back to the battle, "He's the one that killed Bosko's little sister, isn't he? I've heard the occasional rumor about his powers... A mirror. Apparently, he uses a mirror. I haven't actually seen it, but Bosko has no chance of winning. He's dead meat." RS ends his explanation, before he resurfaced to land, he sees some crayfish on the drain, he smirks at it.

"I just noticed something, Marco... looks like I still got some luck on my side. Sucks to be you. See that drain over off to your right, the one with all the blue crayfish? Take a real good look." Rubber Soul instructed, Marco and Jackie turn to the drain he's referring to, then one of the crayfish got pulled in, the screws come loose as the yellow slime managed to come out, the ex-couple turned to see Rubber Soul pouring Yellow Temperance on a manhole that was nearby.

"_A manhole._" Jackie thought as Yellow Temperance comes out of the drain and grabs ahold of Marco.

"Ahahahahah! That drain pipe connects to this manhole! It's a perfect setup for Yellow Temperance's power! I'm gonna pull you in and hold you there!" Yellow Temperance pulls Marco through the drain pipe to kill him, only for the crimson Russian-Mexican to resist and grab the ledge before things could go south, "Now you can't attack me, loser. I guess what I told about the man with two right hands will go to waste. You're not gonna be able to help poor Bosko, Marco Diaz! Aren't I lucky to have this drain to slurp you into. And you thought you had me, didn't you? Man, am I lucky! Time to power up with some crustaceans, this is gonna be fun! I'll mash you up and turn you into jelly! And when I kill you, Hugo's gonna give a hundred million dollars! A few minutes of brawling with you two and I will be set for life! Aren't I lucky? Tell me I'm lucky, you ball-less little asshole!"

"Is that really the best you can do? When you're focused on everything else, it's hard to observe yourself. You don't get, do you? Then we'll just beat the lesson in, 'cause your luck had run out. Before, you got away with only a broken nose." Jackie said, showing that Azure Mermaid was stroking Crimson Tiger's right arm, covering it with water, charging up for the final blow.

"When we're done, you won't have any bones left to break!" Marco finished the lesson for Jackie in aggression as Crimson Tiger lands the water charged punch on the drain straight to the manhole, sending Rubber Soul in the air, due to the super charged water pressure.

"What did he just do?! He punched me with water?!" Rubber Soul cried out before being hit in the face by the metal cover and falls back into the water. He resurfaces once again, just in time for Azure Mermaid to lock him up in a Full Nelson, forcing him to face Marco and Jackie, "I-I was only kidding around, Mr. Marco. I swear, I was just messing with you, buddy! Didn't mean anything by it, okay? Be cool, man. Be cool. It's just a prank. Wait... hang on a second, you're not thinking about punching me anymore, are you? I'm seriously injured here. My nose is badly broken and my jaw's gonna have to be wired shut." He laughs nervously in front of the ex-couple, but they ignored his pleas.

"Just shut up already. I have more to say to you. You're way too pathetic... I'm done wasting my breath." Marco said as Crimson Tiger punches RS in the face as Azure Mermaid holds him in place, looks like Rubber Soul's in need of plastic surgery after this.

Meanwhile, the Vampire Hunters are on the train to India, Marco and Jackie were able to fill them in on the next Stand users and J. Geil, the man with two right hands, which caught Bosko's attention.

"Good grief. So, we're finally heading to India. And the man with two right hands is called J. Geil, right?" Bosko asked, Jackie gives him a nod in response, then the Slovak noticed that someone's missing, "By the way, where did Lucy run off to?"

"She was hanging around Singapore Station right before our train departed, but..." Loki stated, but didn't have the time to explain why.

"She only came to Singapore to see her dad, don't you remember? I'm pretty sure she found him already." Star finished it for Loki, remembering what Lucy was there for.

"Yeah? Well that story about meeting up with her dad sounded fishy to me. I bet she's a runaway." Bosko theorized, "But, it is a bit lonely without that little rugrat. Right, Marco?" Marco didn't say anything, but he smirked in response.

"But that Stand you two faced was creepy enough. Pretty bizarre that a Stand can disguise himself as Higgs." Antonio said to the ex-couple (Marco and Jackie).

"You know, I've been thinking about it. It must've transformed when we left the hotel." Zoltán said, remembering how it went down earlier.

"Hey nerd, you gonna eat those cherries? Not to be greedy, for the sake of our truce, but they're my favorite. Can I have one?" Higgs asked politely, pointing at the untouched cherries.

"Knock yourself out." Marco replied.

"Just this once, nerd. When you at least expect it." Higgs said as she puts the cherry in her mouth, and licks it with her tongue, turns out that the cherry licks were her habit. The reaction of Marco, Zoltán, and Jackie were a mix of confusion and discomfort, "Huh, look at that, flamingoes."

"_Buon dolore..._" Marco muttered at the sight and tips his hat, ignoring the sight. In another car, we see that Lucy had snuck on board the train to follow them, looks like the Vampire Hunters aren't free from her just yet, "Marco..." She muttered in her sleep.

**A/N: Phew... Finally. Sorry about the delay last month, I was busy with college stuff, but now I'm free. At least I was finally able to make this one chapter double. Anyway, the flashback this time looked pretty similar, the beginning of Final Fight, this time it looked pretty good. If you were expecting a fight between Bosko and Ebony Devil, I decided to cut his reign short with Marco and Zoltán giving Devo the Cursed a quick beating. At least I got straight with Yellow Temperance. Good grief, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you next time and don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review.**


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